Dr.Ramesh Seshadri, Cardiac Surgeon of repute, talks of the advantages of operating on a beating heart.


Meet Dr Ramesh Seshadri, whose presence in the operation theatre may lead to a patient's heart skipping a beat but not stopping them. A cardiac surgeon of repute, Dr Seshadri has achieved the feat of performing heart surgeries on a beating heart. In a normal operation, before the operation begins, the heart and lung functions are taken over and maintained by a machine. Thanks to Dr Seshadri, complications arising out of the use of the Heart-Lung machine are now a thing of the past.

Dr Seshadri, heads the Cardiac department at Ruby Hall Clinic. He had his basic medical education in Bangalore. He followed that up with General and Cardiac Surgical residency training at Apollo Hospital, Chennai. In Pune since 1998, he has performed 9000 such bypass surgeries, every one of them on a beating heart. In his modus operandi, Dr.Seshadri uses a stabilising system called the 'Octopus’. This small device helps stabilise the operating area, while the rest of the heart is beating.

According to Dr.Seshadri, it is possible to do up to six grafts on the beating heart. On the other hand, a doctor who operates on a still heart has to deal with quite a few difficulties. Dr.Seshadri, is of the opinion that, "The vessels that are to be grafted are behind the heart and therefore not accessible. If the doctor lifts the heart, sometimes the blood pressure goes down and the anesthetist will not give permission to operate. At times the heart beat rate also goes down."

Dr Seshadri explained that whatever stabilizing methods had been devised till now, were for the anterior vessels and to some extent for the interior vessels. Earlier all the grafts were on the anterior vessels, but not on the posterior vessels. Now the surgeon can do four or five grafts compared to the two he could do earlier.

Elaborating on the benefits of this new methodology, Dr. Seshadri explained that the heart lung machine is an artificial replacement and the blood comes into contact with a lot of plastic and, in the process, allergens when it has to pass through this machine. This in turn could lead to complications in the functioning of the lungs or in extreme cases, kidney failure. The advent of this surgery explains Dr.Seshadri, has seen these risks being eliminated. Dr.Seshadri should know. He has successfully performed more than nine thousand surgeries. For, Puneites, the knowledge that Dr. Seshadri resides here, is surely heartwarming.

Rahul Surkund