Doctors from the Vietnam National Heart Institute successfully performed a complex coronary artery intervention that was live-streamed from Vietnam to an international cardiology conference in Singapore on Friday.

The operation was carried out by a surgical team led by the institute’s director, Prof. Dr. Pham Manh Hung, on Friday afternoon, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The performance was transmitted live to the 33rd Annual Live Interventions in Vascular Endotherapy (Singapore Live 2024), in conjunction with the 13th CTO Interventions Live Course 2024, an annual international conference that took place at the Raffles City Convention Center in Singapore on January 25-27. 

The intervention was performed for an 80-year-old female patient suffering from many underlying diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, and kidney failure, Dr. Hung said.

She only has her left kidney as the right one was previously removed because of kidney stones.

After being taken to a province-level hospital, the patient was transferred to the institute with complicated coronary artery damage, including many narrowed arterial segments and a complete calcification of all three coronary artery branches.

As the patient had a very high risk of complications during surgery, the surgical team decided to apply angioplasty and stent insertion, instead of an open-heart operation.  

During the intervention process, doctors made the best use of different medical techniques to overcome obstacles caused by the woman’s complex health conditions and to ensure the highest possible safety level for her.

The successful intervention, which lasted for about one hour, was highly appreciated by leading cardiologists in the region, according to Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.

It also proved the international integration ability of Vietnam’s interventional cardiology sector, as well as affirmed the position of Vietnamese cardiovascular doctors in world medicine. 

Along with the Vietnam National Heart Institute, 14 other interventional cardiology centers in the world were also invited to perform live cardiological interventions at the event, one of the most prestigious annual scientific conferences on cardiology in Asia-Pacific, according to the Vietnam News Agency. 

Interventional cardiology is a non-surgical option which uses a catheter – a small, flexible tube – to repair damaged or weakened vessels, narrowed arteries, or other affected parts of the heart structure, doctors said.

Vietnam now has 129 interventional cardiology centers across the country and these facilities have been successful in most interventions, especially acute myocardial infarctions.

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