CHI undertakes first Myxoma Resection

May 03, 2009 News

…as it continues its heart surgeries

By Sharmain Cornette

Adding to the list of inaugural operations undertaken at the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI) since its commissioning some years ago, Myxoma Resection, was yesterday for the first time performed in Guyana.
Head of the CHI, New York-based Guyanese, Dr Gary Stephens, along with a team of medical experts arrived here in Guyana on Friday last to continue the mission of helping to stem an ever-growing cardiological challenge.

Roopnarine Chattergoon and his wife Savitri as he awaits a stenting operation

Their first task on the day of their arrival was to perform an open-heart procedure on 50-year-old Bibi Khalil before gearing for the six procedures they were slated to undertake yesterday. And among the most challenging of the scheduled operations was the Myxoma Resection, according to Dr Stephens during an interview with this newspaper before he headed off to the operating theatre.
Errol Smith, said to be in his 40s, is the patient who was identified for the operation and represents the first person in Guyana that will receive such a procedure locally, Dr Stephens noted.
The Cardiac Surgeon regarded Myxoma as a very dangerous condition. It is characteristic of a tumour in the heart similar to those that occur when one has cancer in various parts of the body.
“This comes up in the heart. It is not truly a cancer. What happens is that it behaves like a cancer sometimes and then it can behave like a benign disease so it can be either malignant or benign.”
Dr Stephens explained that the major problem caused by this medical complication is that it can block the flow of blood through the heart valves so that an individual can become short of breath, a situation that can eventually result in heart failure.
However, this has not been the first time that Dr Stephens has identified patients for the procedure. There were three other persons suffering from the typically benign disease and who had died before they could receive surgery.
“This guy (Smith) is the fourth patient we have been able to see since we are coming to Guyana so far. He is the first of the four that is actually going to be able to go to the operating room and get surgery,” Dr Stephens said.
And according to the doctor there is no age group that is more susceptible to the condition. “It can come up in anybody…The last patient, a girl, was in her 20s. When the tumour is on the left side they are more dangerous…but once they are present, they are considered dangerous just the same.”
“This is the first time we are going to attempt this here but because of the position of his (Smith) tumour it is technically difficult so we are going to put him on the bypass machine and then for a brief period of about a minute to two, we are going to stop all of his blood flow so that we can remove the tumour.”
The operation, Dr Stephens said, was slated to last for about two hours.
Five stenting procedures were also slated to be completed before Dr Stephens and his medical team depart Guyana today. One of the patients was 59-year-old Roopnarine Chattergoon of Mahaicony.
According to Chattergoon who was in the company of his wife, Savitri, at the CHI yesterday, it was the day after Phagwah that he suffered a heart attack.
Recounting the fateful day, Chattergoon said that he simply started experiencing a shortage of breath and pain in his chest, which prompted his family to rush him to the Mahaicony Hospital. He was subsequently transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
However, the man recounted that his family took the decision to take him to a private hospital in the city, which in term referred him to CHI where an angiogram was done and it was recommended that a stenting procedure be done.
“So far we are satisfied with the service offered and I believe that after this I will be better,” a grateful Chattergoon related.