A patient with heart failure (left) at Chợ Rẫy Hospital is in stable condition after  undergoing heart transplantation surgery with a heart from a brain-dead donor. Photo courtesy of the hospital

HCM CITY — The adoption of the latest advancements in cardiovascular surgery such as robot-assisted surgery and three-dimensional (3D) laparoscopic surgery has resulted in better treatment of cardiovascular diseases in Việt Nam, leading cardiologists have said.

Lê Ngọc Thành, chairman of the Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, said that minimally invasive heart surgery represented a real revolution in treatment of heart diseases in Việt Nam.

Minimally invasive heart surgery is used to treat a variety of heart conditions and results in fewer complications, quicker recovery, less pain, and shorter hospital stays, Thành, director of E Hospital in Hà Nội, said at a conference held at Chợ Rẫy Hospital in HCM City last Saturday.

Since 2013, more than 900 cases of minimally invasive heart surgery have been performed at the E Hospital.

A child weighing 13 kilogrammes was the youngest patient to undergo minimally invasive heart surgery at the hospital.

Recently, the hospital successfully performed 3D laparoscopic surgery, which helps reduce operative time and complications, according to Thành.

“Heart transplantation from brain-dead donors is a breakthrough achievement of cardiac surgery in Việt Nam,” he said.

Nguyễn Thái An, head of Chợ Rẫy Hospital’s department of cardiac surgery, said that heart failure was a huge burden on medical care, including lengthy hospital treatments and high medical costs.

Heart transplantation is one of the options for treating heart failure.

Since 2017, doctors at Chợ Rẫy Hospital have successfully performed heart transplantation from brain-dead donors for four patients with heart failure in the advanced stage.

The heart transplantations were assisted by Hà Nội’s Việt Đức Hospital. The four patients are in stable condition.

According to Deputy Minister of Health Nguyễn Trường Sơn Việt Nam is among the countries with the highest heart disease-related deaths in the world.

Cardiovascular diseases are a leading cause of death globally, claiming 18 million lives a year, according to Sơn. — VNS