The heart is one of the most important organs of the human body. Apart from pumping blood, it ensures effective circulation and makes sure that oxygenated blood reaches all the cells. Even if the blood circulation stops for a few minutes or in some cases even seconds, the consequences can be life threatening.
However, as individuals age, the heart functions drop. As with pipelines, the arteries and the veins carrying the blood start to clog with fat deposits. This in turn causes problems as blood flow to and from the heart is then restricted. When blood flow is restricted, then it can have painful and sometimes catastrophic consequences.
Some of the methods to remove the heart block is via surgery. However, the disadvantages of a heart surgery are
1) The recovery time associated with the surgery
2) Preparation involved
3) Expenses
4) Subsequent risk including blood clot, pneumonia etc
But how can these be avoided, while the same advantages of a heart surgery enjoyed? What about cases where heart surgery cannot be employed either due to previous medical condition or age?
This is where EECP comes in. It is an innovative and alternative therapy for heart block that works on the principle of enhanced external counter pulsation. It is thus a completely non-invasive method and a heart block treatment without surgery.
EECP therapy involves strapping of cuffs and the electronic inflation and deflation synchronised with the heartbeat. EECP encourages the blood vessels to open small channels and when these alternate pathways are created, it ensures that blood flow is unrestricted. Since this happens naturally, there is no risk of any infection or adverse side effects, which are usually a fear with surgeries.
The EECP treatment must be carried out over a period of 35 hours. This is usually planned at about 1 or 2 hours per day, for a period of 5 days a week for 7 weeks. As this is a non-invasive out-patient treatment, there is no restriction for the patients. Further, improvement is noticed almost after a week of the treatment and this gives confidence to the patients and their care givers as well. Heal Your Heart (a Vaso-Meditech EECP centre) (www.healurheart.com) is a leading player in this area offering excellent EECP treatment with qualified specialists.
It is no doubt that EECP is beneficial and it is a treatment that is not only scientific and innovative, but also non-invasive and hence, it must be encouraged as an effective work around to heart surgery.