Author: BCI

A 46-year-old man with symptoms of a myocardial infarction was admitted as an emergency to ‘Heart and Brain’ overnight and was seen by Dr. Halit Choban and Dr. Martin Koreykov. Already in the emergency room the patient fell into clinical death. A resuscitation team was immediately assembled.

“We immediately started full resuscitation measures, including over 30 defibrillations and cardiac massage for an hour and a half. We placed a temporary pacemaker,” said Dr. Nestor Petrov, a resuscitation physician. After stabilizing vital signs, the team of Dr. Kamelia Krasteva, an interventional cardiologist, performed an emergency coronarography with ventilator and placed two stents.

After one week of treatment in the intensive care unit and cardiology clinic, the patient was discharged with preserved heart pump function and no complaints.

Despite modern methods of diagnosing and treating ischaemic heart disease, the mortality rate from acute coronary syndrome remains high, mainly due to patients’ neglect of symptoms and late seeking medical help. Acute myocardial infarction can also affect patients at a young age, so prevention and timely medical care are particularly important.

The Comprehensive Cancer Centre at ,Heart and Brain’ is the only one of its kind in the country and increasingly preferred by Bulgarian and foreign patients.

Radiosurgery is a bloodless medical method, a type of radiotherapy in which high single doses of precisely focused external ionising radiation are applied to a small volume of the body. In radiosurgery, the goal is to achieve a “surgical” result (hence the name), but without direct access, no anesthesia, no incisions or stitches, and no pain. The method blocks pathological processes and “eradicates” malignant growths in the diseased tissues. After radiosurgery, tumor cells gradually die and malignant tumors shrink or disappear, with their place partially taken by connective tissue. This bloodless alternative to standard surgical interventions treats not only oncological diseases (malignant tumours and their metastases) but also a range of non-oncological diseases – benign tumours, vascular and functional conditions such as neuralgia.

In the last 8 years (since 2015), especially after the reimbursement of the method by the NHIF, radiosurgery is becoming more widespread. Since 2021, , Heart and Brain’ has been operating a unique high-tech centre for the most precise radiotherapy and radiosurgery at a level only offered by world-leading centres in the USA and Western Europe.

The full article is available here in Bulgarian.

In the operating theatre, the team found that the cause of the massive bleeding was an advanced tumour formation in the pelvis

A multidisciplinary team from the urology and surgery clinics performed a unique life-saving operation. The case is extremely rare and probably unique in the country, the specialists said.

The patient was admitted to the urology clinic of ‘Heart and Brain’ in Burgas in hemorrhagic shock and life-threatening bleeding. Thanks to the adequate and timely intervention of the doctors from the anesthesiology and resuscitation clinic, the patient was stabilized and immediately referred for surgical treatment.

In the operating room, the team determined that the cause of the massive bleeding was an advanced tumor formation in the small pelvis that was affecting a large arterial vessel (iliac artery). Doctors were able to control the bleeding, which saved the patient’s life. The multidisciplinary team includes Dr. Tony Statelov – head of the urology clinic, urologists Dr. Angel Kirov and Dr. Alexander Dimitrov and surgeons Dr. Ventsislav Krusharsky and Dr. Zornitsa Rusinova. All the necessary care has been taken for the patient so that he could successfully go through the difficult recovery period. This extremely difficult operation, which lasted more than 8 hours overnight, was successful thanks to the highly qualified medical staff and modern equipment at ‘Heart and Brain’.

The son of an 89-year-old woman, a patient of ‘Heart and Brain’ Burgas, tells about his family’s excellent impressions of the work of the specialists, the organization and the conditions in the high-tech hospital center of clinical excellence.

The full article is available here in Bulgarian.

A multidisciplinary team of invasive cardiologists and cardiac surgeons at ‘Heart and Brain’ helped an 83-year-old patient from Gabrovo, admitted to the hospital in Pleven with serious narrowing of the heart vessels, to lead a normal life again. The highly theological treatment applied gives a chance to people who otherwise would not endure open heart surgery, informed the head of the department of invasive cardiology – Dr. Pavlin Pavlov.

The 83-year-old man was admitted to the hospital with complaints of shortness of breath and chest pain when performing minimal physical effort. The symptoms had been progressively increasing, and over the past month had also limited his ability to self-care. The situation became a problem for him and the patient’s family. In the tests performed at ,Heart and Brain’, the specialists found that the man had serious narrowing of the heart vessels, with massive calcium deposits that made it impossible to implant a stent. The patient also had a narrowed aortic valve.

“The usual method of treatment for these diseases is surgery, but our patient’s disabled condition and advanced age make such surgery high-risk. Therefore, after analyzing the situation together with prof. Iana Simova – Head of the Cardiology Clinic, and Dr. Yordan Krasnaliev – Head of the Cardiac Surgery Clinic, we made the decision to apply a bloodless method of treatment, which is more sparing for the patient, but therefore technically more difficult. Stents were gradually implanted in the vessels of the heart using a rotabulator – the high-tech device is used in many hardened arteries and is the only alternative for their treatment. In a second stage, we treated the narrowed heart valve using the TAVI method, where the valve is introduced to the heart through the leg artery, using a small incision,” Dr Pavlov explained about the treatment process.

The patient was discharged on the third day after the procedure with improvement, no shortness of breath and able to return to his normal lifestyle.