In A First In India, Delhi Vets Perform Non-invasive Heart Surgery On A Dog

Max PetZ Hospital, located in the East of Kailash in Delhi, is one of the top hospitals for the treatment of animals. The veterinary doctors of this hospital have conducted a non-invasive heart surgery on a 7-year-old beagle. It is also claimed that such a surgery has been successfully performed for the first time in India.

The surgery has been done by cardiologist Dr Bhanu Dev Sharma. While talking to the team of Local18, he said that he has been treating animals in this field for 16 years. When the doctor was asked about this heart surgery, he said that a beagle named Juliet had been suffering from mitral valve disease for the last two years.

Such a condition begins in animals when there are internal changes in the mitral valve leaflets. Due to this blockage, it starts occurring in the left side of the heart. But after this surgery, the blood circulation inside the heart is restored. If this disease is not treated on time, then there may be a possibility of heart failure. This type of disease is seen in small-breed dogs.

Dr Bhanu further said that in this disease, only medicine and dialysis were used in the past. But a few years ago, the first research on this surgery was done in a training centre in Shanghai, China. Then two years ago, the surgery was first done at the Colorado State University of the USA. Now, it has been successfully done for the first time in India. On the other hand, if we look at private hospitals, then this is the first surgery in Asia. Talking about the cost of the surgery, the doctor said that it costs between Rs 8 to 10 lakh.

He said that a transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) procedure was performed using a valve clamp inside the dog, which is called hybrid surgery. It is a combination of a microsurgery and an interventional procedure. The best thing about this procedure is that it is a minimally invasive method as it is a beating heart procedure. It is not like open heart surgery, which requires a heart-lung bypass machine. She was discharged just two days after the surgery in a stable medical condition.