North East

Much more than in the past, the number of pre-term babies is on the rise lately. WHO reveals that an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm. Dr. Sumita Saha, Consultant Paediatrician and NICU in-charge at Fortis Hospital Anandapur said, a baby is called as premature if he/she is born before 37 weeks of gestation period as against a normal term of 40 weeks. However, those born between 32-37 weeks generally do not need much support. Those born below 32 weeks are the ones who need a good amount of intensive care support. However, if born over 24 weeks, the…

Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (FEHI), New Delhi performed India's First Coronary Shockwave Lithotripsy to open up a severely blocked artery in a 67 year-old patient who had recently had a heart attack.  It was done by a team of doctors led by Dr Ashok Seth, Chairman, FEHI, New Delhi. The patient had 90 percent blocked artery which could not be opened by the standard technique balloon angioplasty at extremely high pressures with balloon bursting and it became impossible to open the blockage. Then the novel shockwave balloon was inserted inside the heart artery and sonic pulses delivered to break the…