Rare critical vascular surgery performed

CHENNAI — When Latha could not wash utensils or even pick up a handkerchief from the floor, she did not realise that she was suffering from takaysus arteritis, ‘pulseless disease’ a rare disorder that occurs in Asian women.

Surgeons at the city-based M R Hospitals — Dr S Saravanan, Dr S Jayakumar and Dr R Anandan — performed a rare critical vascular surgery on the Mumbai-based woman. They claimed this the first such an ‘extensive bypass’ surgery done in the country.

Dr S Saravanan said 38-year-old Latha was suffering from the illness due to the absence of blood flow to both hands and right side of the brain and with minimal flow to the left brain.

The doctor said that the causes of the disease, which destroys the blood vessels in middle-aged women, were unknown. “Unless surgery is performed, fatality is very high,” he added. Constant giddiness and inability to do day-to-day normal functions are the symptoms.

Explaining the procedure of the surgery, Dr Saravanan said the patient’s chest was opened and four synthetic blood vessels were stitched to the right and left carotid and subclavian arteries that supply blood to the brain and hands respectively.

Dr Saravanan said the six-hour surgery was performed on June 6 and she was recuperating well.