UGMC performs beating heart surgery

The University of Ghana Medical Centre’s (UGMC) Heart Center has successfully performed its first surgery on a beating heart.

The off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery was conducted on two people, a 70-year-old retired teacher and a 67-year-old businesswoman, who were among six patients who underwent difficult cardiac surgical procedures at the center.

Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, a well-known heart surgeon, is credited with performing the first beating heart operation in Ghana at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital’s Cardiothoracic Centre.

According to a statement made by the center last Friday in Accra, the retired teacher (name withheld) presented to the center with central chest pain spreading to the left shoulder, fatigue, and palpitations.

According to the report, his examination and study were consistent with severe triple-vessel coronary disease, also known as blocked arteries to the heart, affecting the left anterior descending artery, the circumflex artery, and the right coronary artery. UGMC

Exams and investigations

According to the statement, the entrepreneur was transported to the UGMC with chest pain, nausea, vomiting, and diaphoresis.

She was examined and discovered to have severe two-vessel coronary artery disease.

According to the statement, a three-hour emergency surgery was performed on the retired teacher’s beating heart (Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Graft), during which time the left internal mammary artery was connected to the left anterior descending artery and the reverse saphenous graft was connected to the circumflex and right coronary arteries, respectively. UGMC

The patient was extubated two hours after surgery, spent 24 hours in the intensive care unit, and was discharged on the fifth day, according to the report.

According to the statement, the entrepreneur had her left internal mammary artery attached to the left anterior descending artery and a reversed saphenous graft to the circumflex artery. She was extubated one hour after surgery and discharged on the fifth day. UGMC

Cardiovascular surgeons

The cardiothoracic surgeons who accomplished the feat were identified as Professor Enoch Akowuah, Dr. Baffoe Gyan, Dr. Gordon Offei-Larbi, and Professor Andrew Owens, with Dr. Ernest Ofosu Appiah serving as the anesthetist.

According to the declaration, risk factors for coronary artery disease were classified as modifiable and non-modifiable.

Modifiable risk variables mentioned in the study were smoking (cigarettes, shisha, and other tobacco products), increased alcohol consumption, diabetes, hypertension, and poor dietary habits, which included consuming junk food and eating late, among others.

As risk factors, “obesity/dyslipidemia, stress, physical inactivity, increased levels of highly sensitive C-reactive proteins, and homocysteinemia” were also listed.

The risk variables for non-modifiability included advanced age (after 65 years), family history, and male gender.

Keeping coronary artery disease at bay

The statement mentioned some preventive measures against coronary artery disease, such as screening and routine check-ups; regular exercise, 20 minutes at least three times a week; quitting smoking or alcohol consumption; control of blood pressure and blood sugars for people with hypertension and diabetes; and keeping one’s weight within the normal range on a BMI chart.

The statement stated that if one was overweight, decreasing merely 5% to 10% of one’s present weight would reduce one’s risk of getting coronary artery disease.

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