Zulekha Hospital successfully saves expat with rare cardiovascular disorder

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) account for 17.9 million deaths per year across the world

UAE, 27 August, 2018: Zulekha Hospital Sharjah has successfully treated a rare cardiac condition after Babul Rana Jalil Molla, a 46 year-old expat, was suffering from hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is a genetic disorder of cardiac muscles leading to thickening of them. This causes obstruction in the outflow of the heart; therefore blood comes to the body from the heart with great difficulty. It also causes breathing difficulty and chest pain to the patient which may result in death if not treated in a timely manner.

According to World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases globally account for most NCD (Non Communicable Diseases) deaths or 17.9 million people annually, followed by cancers (9.0 million), respiratory diseases (3.9 million), and diabetes (1.6 million).  A raised blood pressure and high cholesterol are among the main metabolic risk factors that increase the risk of NCDs. Other modifiable behaviors, such as tobacco use, physical inactivity and an unhealthy diet also increase the risk of NCDs*.

The patient suffered with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy for many years but in last few months he increasingly had difficulty breathing even after taking proper medication. He reached Zulekha Hospital Sharjah where the medical team was led by Dr. Rupesh Singh, a specialist interventional cardiologist learned of his diagnosis and septal ablation was advised as an alternative to open heart surgery.

As it is a mechanical obstruction, medicine has a limited role in treatment.  There are two ways to correct this obstruction – one is to surgically remove excessive thickening of the muscle via open heart surgery which is a complex procedure and not readily available. The second is to burn excessive muscle by selectively injecting chemicals into arteries. It is a demanding and complex procedure but once completed, the patient is able to regain a normal life percutaneously after 48 hours. In this process, doctors introduce a small cannula into the arteries which are supplying blood to excessively thickened muscles and then inject chemicals to induce necrosis to reduce thickness of the muscle.

A septal ablation is used to treat selected cases only and should be operated in a cardiac catheterization laboratory by an experienced interventional cardiologist. As such, the procedure is only available in a few institutions. Following the septal ablation procedure, the patient’s outflow gradient declined from 70 mmhg to 20 mmhg.

Dr. Rupesh Singh said: “Molla’s case represents one of the many reasons behind establishing state of art cardiac treatment facility at Zulekha Hospital Sharjah. Our cath lab is equipped with the latest technology and equipment to perform complex cardiac cases and improve the lives of cardiac patients. We’re very proud and happy that we were able to successfully treat such a rare cardiac case, and the patient was discharged without any complications.”

Molla was monitored in the hospital for five days to monitor for any complications and was discharged with improved symptoms. He was also advised to visit for check up after three weeks.

Please call 600524442 for emergencies.