Hyderabad: Irregular heart rhythm disorder affects 50 lakh Indians. To treat this disorder, specialists in the cardilogy department of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) here successfully used a novel procedure, using a ‘cooling balloon’ on two patients.

This was for the first time that the procedure was carried out in south India, AIG Hospitals said.

The technique is called cryoballoon ablation which freezes inactive and abnormal heart tissues that are the cause of irregular heart beats.

Earlier, the problem of irregular heart rhythm used to be solved by using heat energy. This was a prolonged procedure and took time for the patient to recover.   The new technique of freezing affected tissues helped patients recover within a day and get back to normal life.

Dr C. Narasimhan, director and head of the department of electrophysiology at AIG Hospitals, said that both patients on whom the procedure was carried out were discharged in a day.

“They could resume their normal activities with this minimally invasive technique. We are coming up with dedicated clinics to identify these irregular heart beats which will help these patients,” Dr Narasimhan said. 

Irregular heart beats are often not understood by people and they report hospital late which results in their diagnosis being delayed. Special clinics will help identify these patients under a comprehensive programme of cardiology, electrophysiology, cardiac surgery, cardiac imaging and arrhythmia research, said Dr Narasimhan.

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