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Heart specialists shifting patients away from open-heart surgery

Heart specialists are shifting more patients away from open-heart surgery as minimally invasive procedures gain ground in cardiovascular treatment, doctors from Asian Heart and Vascular Centre say on April 17, 2026. During a roundtable discussion in Cebu City, experts said catheter-based techniques now allow safer treatment for high-risk and elderly patients. Dr. Edgar Tay said minimally invasive procedures now replaced many open-heart surgeries, offering shorter recovery times and reduced risk. Dr. Pipin Kojodjojo warned that atrial fibrillation increases stroke risk by up to 500 percent and stressed the need for early detection and intervention. They also urged early screening as cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the Philippines.

VIDEO BY KAISER JAN FUENTES

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Transcript
00:00You have to go in. Basically, you don't need a plaster for this. It's seven millimeters across. I have mentioned
00:07this. So a seven millimeter cut basically feels like you just had blood taken from your arm. And so that's
00:13all it is.
00:13And so this replaces this procedure to do all kinds of things open because we can use minimally invasive equipment
00:23to do the thing. Keep reading and keep empowering yourself with knowledge. I think if you read enough and you
00:35empower yourself with enough knowledge, then you know what to do. And now like Pippin says, you have a lot
00:41of access to our chat GBT.
00:43But it's important to always not discount the fact that just because you don't have symptoms and you're young and
00:50everything is going to be good. So because there are increasing number of young patients that have no symptoms and
00:57still have issues. So don't be kind of loud into thinking that everything is going to be okay without being
01:04aware there are actually ways to screen some of these conditions that are probably yours.
01:11I think for me it would be just, you know, in this day and age, screening tests are so accessible.
01:18Everybody should know your numbers, right? If I ask you what your blood pressure is, what's your sugar level, what's
01:25your cholesterol, you know, you should be able to tell me that.
01:29It should be difficult for any adult, right? And if you don't know the number, then go find out the
01:34number because it's really very, very easy to do it now.
01:38So everyone needs to make use of just very, very low cost screening facilities, you know, waiting, right?
01:50And so there's constantly new technology coming up. We want to make procedures safer. We want to make the procedures
01:59more effective, right?
02:01And so whenever new technology comes onto the field, it has to be proven before it is recognized. And so
02:10when these things are recognized, they go into what we call guidelines.
02:13And, you know, a few of us will write these internal guidelines. But if you read it and it says
02:18that if you have this condition, it is best to treat with all these things, right?
02:23So, and it's constantly, but if you look at the trend over the last 20, 30 years, what is clear
02:28is that we do less, we want to do less open surgeries.
02:32We want to do more minimally invasive stuff. We want patients to stay in hospital less, right?
02:39And as a result of doing the surgery, the patient has to benefit.
02:44So when you sometimes read in the newspapers about new treatments that in a trial was proven,
02:49although the intentions were good, in a trial, it proved to have no benefit, right?
02:55And no benefit treatments are equally thrown away in cardiology very quickly.
03:00So if you have a treatment that turns out to be ineffective or no better than what it was in
03:05the past,
03:06we will all stop doing it, right?
03:09And so it's based on this proof of, you know, evidence that you have,
03:14and it dictates how we practice, right?
03:17So we are basically up to date with whatever that happens around the world.
03:22So at APC, if there's something happening around the world, you will have access to it,
03:27if it is effective, if it results in better patient outcomes.
03:33The other thing to add is nowadays when you look at clinical trials,
03:37I mean, now you have access to the internet and you read these trials.
03:40In the past, we oftentimes only look at very hard outcomes, like does this technology prolong life?
03:47Does this technology reduce the patient's, say, heart failure episodes?
03:53So very hard, distinct kind of outcomes.
03:55But these outcomes are, yes, they're important,
03:58but there's also an important aspect nowadays that involves the assessment of quality of life as well.
04:03So nowadays, most of these trials, if you read them carefully,
04:07there will be heart outcomes and there will also be patient-centered or patient-centric outcomes.
04:11So you're right, if asked whether these will be invasive technologies translate to these outcomes,
04:17and most of them will clearly show benefit.
04:21If they are being written guidelines,
04:22they will have oftentimes heart outcomes and also improvement in patient's quality of life.
04:28So nowadays, it's quite important that we actually listen to what patients want.
04:33That's the reason why these things have gone into the trials as well.
04:36Always collect patient quality outcomes as well.
04:40The heart.
04:40It can cross from the right heart to the left,
04:43and the next place this is clot then would go to would be the brain.
04:48And what we need to do is actually to try to identify these patients early,
04:52and then close this gap so that the chance of having clot again is reduced.
04:57So you can see here, when the clot travels to the brain...
05:18So you can see here, when the clot travels to the brain...
05:27So you can see here, when the clot ==
05:28...
05:32So you can see here, when the clot travels to the brain...
05:32So carefullydoes the brain...
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