Month: September 2018

The team of interventional cardiologists at Zan Mitrev Clinic for the first time in the country performed an ablation in a child, namely, ablation of the accessory path in the right-posteroseptal region.

It is a matter of an eight year old child who has had a problem with tachycardia (accelerated heartbeat) for a longer period of time. The intervention ended successfully, whereupon soon the child will be discharged home, together with his parents. The members of the team that performed this intervention said that the patient’s safety was first, and a lot of attention was dedicated to it, as well as to the positive final outcome.

The parents contacted us and asked for help for this small child who suffered of tachycardia. We admitted him and today with three teams of anesthesiologists, cardiologists and electrophysiologists, we performed an electrophysiological study. One cardia is provoked where the impulse travels along the normal path and returns along the accessory path along the right posteroseptal region and here we interrupted that impulse. The result is a successful ablation of the accessory path in the right posteroseptal region. The child had tachycardia, and also circulation of the impulse between the atrium, the ventricle and the accessory path, and we interrupt only one part of the path, thus only the tachycardia is interrupted. We interrupt the path that leaves no consequences, and it is this accessory route. In this way we solve this problem. Because it is a matter of a child, this means that a specific anesthetic is required, therefore smaller and thinner material should be used, which we have and we use in Zan Mitrev Clinic – explained the team members of our clinic.

“A friend of mine, born in Macedonia, recommended your hospital”, Yuan Shi started the story with these words. She is the daughter of our patient Huazhu Shi, who came from Beijing, China. He was operated by Dr. Zan Mitrev, the surgery included valve replacement and implantation of two coronary bypasses.

“After my father started to feel heart difficulties, we decided to come to ZAN MITREV CLINIC in Macedonia because there are many patients in China and there is a lack of good surgeons, so you have to wait very long for a surgery term. Moreover, the services in Chinese hospitals are not like the services in this clinic, and if my father was supposed to stay there, at least two relatives would have to take care of him during his stay. We had little time, and we did not have the energy to search for good doctors in our country, so I accepted the recommendation to come here, because I was looking for a good service and modern technology” – she pointed out.

Ms. Yuan is impressed by the look of the hospital and the hospitality of the medical staff.

“Quality medical service makes me particularly happy because my father was not able to receive food, and the doctors and nurses did everything to help us. We very much appreciate that professional attitude”, stated the guest from Beijing.

She said that such a VIP apartment, like the one in Zan Mitrev Clinic, is difficult to find in China, even if you are a significant political person, and especially if you are ordinary people, because there is a lack of facilities there, so she is especially surprised by the convenience and the overall atmosphere which have exceeded her expectations.

“The professionalism of Dr. Zan Mitrev made me very happy and gave me confidence about the surgery, which went well and my father recovered very quickly”, concluded Mr. Huazhu’s daughter and she thanked for the superior service of the entire surgical team.

Mr. Huazhu Shi recovered and few days after the surgery and before he left, he met Dr. Zan Mitrev who once again wished him good health. The Shi family went to a several-day vacation in Ohrid in order to continue the rehabilitation and to spend some time sightseeing the tourist attractions of our country.

Anton Moritz, former director of the University Cardiovascular Center Frankfurt, Germany

You frequently visit our country and our clinic, what are the impressions of those visits?

A.M. – So far, I have been in Macedonia several times. As early as 1979, with my wife, we decided to return from camping through Greece and then Ohrid. After the opening of the hospital in 2000, I was invited to visit the former Military Hospital. On the occasion of the gathering of the Macedonian Society for Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, we were in Ohrid and we held lectures, and then we visited many interesting sights on the return to Skopje. At the 18^th anniversary of the existence of Zan Mitrev Clinic in 2018, I was invited to the ceremony, also as an expert lecturer, and a special moment was the reception by the President of the Republic of Macedonia.

What is your assessment of the situation primarily in cardiac surgery in regard to the development and application of new methods?

A.M. – Diagnostics and surgical treatment as well as further treatment are on the same level as in the other European centers. The building is nicely furnished and equipped with modern medical equipment. Dr. Zan Mitrev took care of the further development of surgical techniques, many of the procedures were awarded international acknowledgements at professional congresses. The clinic provides very good medical care to patients. In certain areas, diagnostics and therapy are at the highest and the most innovative level. For a clinic, which is not directly a part of a university clinic, the scientific activities are excellent.

You have stated: “Cardiac surgery is a new branch, many things have changed, there are new possibilities”, what are these possibilities and what do they refer to?

A.M. – Considering that cardiac surgery to a significant extent has existed since the mid-70s, one can say that the development so far is remarkable. There has been a significant increase in the average age of the patient. At the beginning of the eighties, there were lectures on whether cardiosurgery is possible in patients older than 70 years of age, while today the average age of treated patients exceeds the age of 70 years. New techniques, implants, the extracorporeal circulation machine, and the improvement of intensive care have created the possibility of treating complex heart diseases in adult patients, by limiting multiple organ systems.

Nowadays operating methods offer treatment options in severely sick patients without opening the chest and without the use of an extracorporeal circulation machine, which besides the described improvements, and in today’s conditions still pose too much risk for conventional cardiac surgeries.

As a director of the University Cardiovascular Center in Frankfurt, Germany, can you compare what is happening to us and generally in the Balkans when it comes to cardiac surgery?

A.M. – For 22 years I managed the Clinic for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Clinic in Frankfurt. I retired after this position. For that reason, I had to dedicate more time to the support of the departments that were run or formed by my former associates and students.

Since I do not know other centers in the Balkans except Zan Mitrev Clinic, I would not like to make a general comparison in this area. But undoubtedly, many clinics in the wider region do not dispose of such equipment, expertise, organization and quality control, as they do in Zan Mitrev Clinic. In terms of equipment, this clinic is by no means lagging in comparison with the standard I have experienced in Germany. As an institution focused on patient care, the processes are organized impressively and the institution has experienced specialists.

 

“I am impressed by your hospital”, said Dr. Gianluca Pontone during a visit to Zan Mitrev Clinic. As a cardiologist and radiologist, he runs the MR Department and he is the Deputy Director of the Cardiovascular CT Department at the Cardiology Center Monzino (Centro Cardiologico Monzino), Italy, which is associated with Milan and the University of Milan. Dr. Pontone came as a lecturer at the Symposium on Acute Coronary Syndrome, organized by the Macedonian Association of Cardiology, which was held on September 4 and 5, 2018, in Skopje.

“I am glad that I have the opportunity to participate in the Symposium in Skopje and that I can visit this hospital, which is very impressive both in terms of size and technology. It is a great honor for me to be here, considering that I am a specialist in cardiac diseases and that the main activity in this hospital is specifically the treatment of this type of diseases”, stated Dr. Pontone after the tour in Zan Mitrev Hospital.

Previously he did not have any information about our hospital, therefore he pointed out that he was very surprised by the high standard and all the possibilities that he managed to see here. Comparing the conditions with the hospitals in Italy, Dr. Pontone underlined that a parallel cannot be made with the average Italian hospitals, but only with the best ones because it is obvious that it is a matter of a modern medical center with an advanced technology.

The meetings with Dr. Zan Mitrev were also attended by Anton Moritz, a Director of the University Cardiovascular Center in Frankfurt, Germany. Experiences and future directions for the development of modern radiology and cardiology were exchanged at the meetings, where a part of the team of Zan Mitrev Clinic also took part.