“The doctors at Federico II gave us the best gift we could wish for.”
This is what Lia, daughter of Regina Cotugno, tells us. Thanks to a minimally invasive heart surgery operation, never performed before in Italy, she was able to return home to her four children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
“We intervened to resolve a very serious pathology of the aorta, caused by significant hypertension, which is technically defined as acute aortic dissection of type A. – explains Gabriele Iannelli, head of the surgical team that performed the operation – This is a sort of detachment of the layers of the aortic wall, with its initial and dangerous rupture.
An open heart surgery and extracorporeal circulation, as is usually done, would have been impossible to perform on such an elderly patient who had already had heart surgery. It would certainly have been fatal”.
The only alternative to minimally invasive surgery would have been medical therapy, which, according to the data, is associated with a mortality rate of more than 75% in the first six months.
Article published on 9 February 2023 - 17:46
