THE Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, has successfully carried out a non-surgical repair of a hole in a heart defect. The procedure, known in medical parlance as Ventricular Septal Defect Closure, was carried out by experts at the hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory.
Announcing the feat in a series of tweets on its Twitter handle @LASUTHikeja the health institution asserted that it is the first of its kind in a public tertiary health institution in Nigeria.
An Interventional Cardiologist at the hospital, Dr Oluwaseye Oladimeji, said with this development, “Patients now have options to open heart surgery”.
The tweets read as follows: “As a public tertiary health institution, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) is never resting on its oars, in its provision of quality health solutions to the residents of Lagos State, Nigeria and the World at large.
“On Tuesday, the 20th of June, 2023, at the hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, experts carried out a first-of-its-kind procedure called Ventricular Septal Defect Closure (VSD), in a tertiary health institution.
“According to Dr. Oluwaseye Oladimeji, a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist in LASUTH, described the procedure as one being performed on patients born with a hole in the heart. He revealed that ’there are two ways to deal with holes in the heart. One is to perform an open heart surgery, while the other way, is to do a non-surgical closure’.
“Dr. Oladimeji defined VSD as a type of heart procedure that closes a hole between the left and right ventricles of the heart. He said this can be done without making an incision in the chest wall and the defect can be closed using a disc-like device.
“The Consultant Cardiologist said, ‘patients who undergo this procedure can be discharged two hours after VSD closure and they can be on their way home.’
“It is worthy of note that, different kinds of procedures have been carried out in LASUTH’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. So far, over 120 procedures have been successfully performed since the inception of this laboratory in the second quarter of year 2022.
“The efforts of the current distinctive hospital management and staff, led by the unwavering and efficient Chief Medical Director, Prof. Adetokunbo O. Fabamwo, has produced continuous improvement in the delivery of excellent healthcare services in LASUTH.”
Vanguard gathered that cardiac catheterization takes about three hours, and complications are rare, even as most patients may leave the hospital the day after having the procedure.
A hole in the heart is a hole between the upper chambers of the heart (atria), hence it is known as an Atrial Septal Defect, ASD. The hole increases the amount of blood that flows through the lungs.
The condition is one of the most common congenital heart defects (present at birth) and occurs when one of several openings in the wall dividing the upper chambers of a baby’s heart fails to close as it is developing during pregnancy.