Srinagar, Sep 03: Doctors at Government Medical College Anantnag have conducted two back to back Left Bundle pacings on C-arm without EP backup achieving a new milestone.
Three days back, a team of cardiologists led by Dr Syed Maqbool, Dr Shamim Iqbal and Dr Showkat Shah did two left bundle pacings on C- arm and without EP backup successfully.
“Left bundle pacing is a new concept of pacing where the pacemaker lead is fixed into the conduction system of the heart and notably the left bundle branch,” said Dr Maqbool.
In routine pacemaker implantation, the lead is generally implanted at cardiac apex, which leads to pacemaker induced cardiomyopathy in around 20% of patients, causing heart failure in them. Putting a lead in the left bundle almost reduces this complication to zero.
He said this procedure assumes particular importance in another procedure called cardiac resynchronization therapy with a pacemaker (CRT-P) implantation done for dilated cardiomyopathy.
“In CRT-P implantation, done to improve the pumping of heart in these patients, three leads are implanted each in RA and RV and coronary sinus,” Dr Maqbool said.
This procedure has a 25 percent non-responder rate, wherein the patient’s heart pumping does not improve despite a successful procedure.
“Putting the third lead in the left bundle area not only increases the responder rate to more than 95 percent but the response is faster,” he said.
Left bundle pacing’s a relatively new procedure is done in many centers, including SKIMS and SMHS in Srinagar but inside a cath lab and with EP backup.
“This is for the first time that somebody has attempted a left bundle pacing on C arm and without EP back up. Both patients underwent a successful procedure and are discharged,” Dr Maqbool said.
Principal GMC Anantnag, Prof Dr Rukhsana Najeeb herself supervised the anaesthesia and critical care backup of these patients. Prof. Najeeb has been working tirelessly to improve overall health care in the medical college.
