Angioplasty at age 91
When a 91-year-old former government official felt angina pain for a month, he decided to opt for what patients decades younger than him do: undergo an angioplasty .
What makes this Thane resident’s case special is the fact that he had undergone a complex bypass heart surgery 20 years back as well as a four-stent angioplasty a decade back. Moreover, none of Dharanendra Ladage’s old medical papers were available for doctors to study in preparation for the procedure.
“My father likes to stay active. He has to do yoga in the morning and go to the gym in the evening or he feels restless,“ said his 52-year-old son Manish.
As the angina was interfering with his daily schedule, the nonagenarian didn’t bat an eyelid when asked if he indeed wanted to undergo a stent procedure. He had been on extra medication for a month due to chest pain, but it didn’t resolve the situation. He finally underwent an angioplasty on Saturday .
On Monday , Lagade went for a walk and asked doctors if he could resume his daily gym routine. “He seems to be recove ring well and should be ready for discharge on Wednesday ,“ said cardiologist Vijay Surase from Jupiter Hospital in Thane who operated on him. Doctors found a 90%-95% blockage in the graft over his right coronary artery . It needed one stent as against the four used during his last angioplasty 10 years back.
“Given his age and medical background, this was a challenging angioplasty . His vessels were concrete hard due to calci um deposits and there was a fear of rupture.
There always was the risk of complications such as kidney failure or stroke,“ added Dr Surase.
Cardiologist Dr B C Goyal, who operated on a 94-year-old Azamgad resident over 13 years back, said many people in their late eighties undergo angioplasty these days.
“Earlier, people in their eighties would not want to undergo procedures saying they have lived enough, but this mindset is changing. People want to remain active until later and are willing to under angioplasty later,“ said Dr Goyal, adding he has performed angioplasty on at least 10 patients in the 88-90 age bracket in the last year itself.
