Wider range of cardiac surgeries performed in Belarusian regions

In H1 2008, up 2.7 thousand cardiac surgeries were performed in Belarus, BelTA learnt from Alexander Mrochek, the chief cardiologist of the Health Ministry of Belarus, director of the republican scientific practical centre Cardiology. According to him, the Cardiology centre alone performed 2 thousand surgeries in H1 2008. During the same period of 2008, Belarusian surgeons performed 509 coronary artery bypass graft surgeries. Alexander Mrochek noted that at present, the cardiologists of the country are working in better conditions and are able to perform a wider range of cardiac surgeries. “The development of cardiology in the regions helps to better satisfy cardiac needs of the population. At present, we meet 40% of the needs of the Belarusians in cardiac surgeries,” he noted. Today the hospitals of all the oblast centres can offer coronary arteriography (it assesses the extent of coronary artery occlusion), implantation of pacemakers, artery stenting (a catheter-based procedure in which a small, expandable wire mesh tube (stent) is implanted into a diseased artery as a scaffold to hold it open). Coronary artery bypass graft surgeries are now performed in the Gomel, Vitebsk, Mogilev and Minsk oblasts.