Kuala Lumpur: An innovative vein harvesting technology, now being introduced in Malaysia, is expected to reduce the long waiting time for the poor to undergo heart bypass surgery.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre yesterday carried out the country's first bypass using this technology, which was invented by Dr Peter Hjc. Sporen of Holland.

UKMMC consultant cardiothoracic surgeon and senior lecturer, Associate Professor Dr Mohd Ramzisham Abdul Rahman, who conducted the surgery, said the new technology cut the vein-harvesting time during heart bypass surgery, from about an hour to about 10 minutes.

He added that the recuperation period for a bypass patient was also reduced greatly as the patient could start walking faster and this subsequently helped in the heart recovery process.

"The patient can leave the hospital between four and five days compared with five and seven days currently.

"This will reduce the hospitalisation bills for patients and it would also allow the hospital to handle more bypass cases," he added.

Dr Ramzisham, who conducts about 150 heart bypass operations per year, said: "I just needed to make a small incision at the groin area of the patient to extract the vein using the Vascular-Micro-Milling-System (VMMS-100).

"Using the VMMS-100, which works like a boring instrument, we track the vein down to the bottom of the leg and then cut it out without having to cut open the entire stretch of the leg using the conventional method."

He added that the VMMS-100 also had its cosmetic benefit as patients would now be spared the ugly leg-long scar left by the conventional vein harvest method.

Bangkok-based Dr Sporen, who is chief executive officer of CPM Medical Technology Co Ltd which holds the patent for VMMS-100, said he developed the technology 15 years ago as a means to remove varicose veins.

"However, my colleagues and I only later realised that the technique could be used for vein harvesting, specifically for bypass surgery of the heart, leg and arm.

"However it took us two years to develop it as it was a highly complicated mechanism."

Dr Sporen was in the UKMMC operating theatre together with specialists from other local hospitals to observe Dr Ramzisham's operation.

Dr Sporen hoped that with the use of the VMMS-100, more heart patients, especially among the poor in developing countries, could benefit from the heart bypass operation and live fuller lives.

Dr Ramzisham said in Malaysia, about 70 per cent of the cardiac operations carried out were bypass surgeries.

He added that in UKMMC, about two bypass surgeries were done a day while at the National Heart Institute, about 10 bypass surgeries were done daily.

He hoped other hospitals would adopt this new technology introduced by UKMMC in its capacity as a teaching facility.

By: R. Sittamparam