Educational live demonstration aims to advance cardiac treatment for patients in Africa
Cardiologists and other medical practitioners from around Africa recently had the opportunity to watch a South African professor expertly direct a special repair device via tiny wires and catheters towards a patient’s heart in order to repair a hole in this vital organ.
The live interactive demonstration by local interventional cardiologist, Professor Farrel Hellig, was performed in the cardiac catheterisation laboratory at Netcare Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, from where it was streamed in real time to hundreds of delegates attending the 20th Pan-African Course on Interventional Cardiology (PAFCIC) held in Tunisia recently.
Professor Hellig, a renowned interventional cardiologist and associate professor at the University of Cape Town’s Medical School, spoke participants through the intricate ‘keyhole’ procedure to close the hole, or flap, in the wall of the inter-atrial septum of the heart. This is known in medical terms as a patent foramen ovale (PFO) repair.
Professor Hellig, who is committed to education in interventional cardiology, and is known for sharing his knowledge widely with his colleagues, says that the heart repair procedure went well and the patient was discharged home from the hospital the following day.
The procedure was followed closely on a large screen by delegates in Tunisia, who were able to interact and engage with the professor throughout the procedure. Professor Hellig says the PFO is a relatively easy intervention for him and his team to perform, as they have undertaken many of them in recent years.
Held under the auspices of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR), PAFCIC aims to educate the continent’s doctors on interventional cardiology, thereby aiming to improve cardiovascular care in Africa. Professor Hellig’s procedure was one of 10 performed by experts at centres around the continent to demonstrate to delegates the latest techniques in this sub-speciality. In addition to these live case transmissions, the PAFCIC programme included practical workshops and keynote lectures by international experts.
Professor Hellig explains that interventional cardiology is a sub-specialty of cardiology, and provides minimally invasive, image-guided diagnosis and treatment of cardiac conditions. He is regularly invited to demonstrate such techniques to delegates at the annual PAFCIC Congress as well as at other such international educational meetings. Last year, Professor Hellig demonstrated a live transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) — a procedure during which a diseased heart valve (aortic valve) is replaced with an artificial valve — to PAFCIC delegates.
Professor Hellig was also course director for AfricaPCR, the largest interventional meeting in Africa, which ran concurrently with SA Heart Congress and PASCAR, from 31 October to 3 November 2019. Five live demonstration procedures were performed as part of AfricaPCR at Netcare Sunninghill Hospital.
“I am always greatly honoured to be asked to perform such live demonstrations for events such as PAFCIC, which meaningfully contributes to the advancement of cardiovascular medicine, and interventional cardiology in particular, on the continent,” concludes Professor Hellig.
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