New Delhi: A dog with a complex heart condition successfully underwent a minimally invasive heart surgery at a hospital here with veterinarians claiming it to be the first such procedure to be carried out by private practitioners in the Indian subcontinent. Seven-year-old beagle, Juliet has been suffering from Mitral valve disease for the last two years, Dr Bhanu Dev Sharma, an interventional cardiologist for small animals at Max PetZ Hospital in East of Kailash said on Sunday. The condition is caused by degenerative changes in mitral valve leaflets which result in backflow of blood within the left upper chamber of the heart and subsequent congestive heart failure (fluid build-up in lungs) as the disease progresses.
The surgeons performed a Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER) procedure using a valve clamp on May 30. "It's called hybrid surgery as it's a combination of a microsurgery and interventional procedure. The best part about this procedure is that it's minimally invasive as it's a beating heart procedure and not like an open heart surgery which needs a heart-lung bypass machine," Sharma explained.
As per the pet parents, they have been giving heart medications to Juliet for the last year, Sharma said. They learnt about the procedure from their visit to the US where this surgery was introduced at Colorado State University two years ago, he said. The pet dog was discharged in a stable medical condition just two days after surgery.
Most common heart condition among d.