The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Saturday successfully underwent an eleven-hour long complex heart bypass surgery at AIIMS."Everything has gone off well," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after Dr Singh's operation by a team of expert doctors flown in from Mumbai ended.
"His condition remained stable during the surgery and utmost care was being taken to prevent any bleeding because of the stitching," Dr Sudhir Vaishnav, cardio-vascular thoracic surgeon with the Asian Heart Institute (AHI), Mumbai, said.
The coronary artery bypass surgery included replacement of older grafts performed on the Prime Minister in 1990 in the UK, doctors said.
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was wheeled into the operation theatre in the AIIMS at 5:30 AM. The operation finally began at 7:15 AM," Dr Vaishnav said. "The entire country is rejoicing because our Prime Minister has come out successfully from the operation. We must thank the surgeons, the team of doctors and all those who have extended excellent help," Congress spokesperson Veerappa Moily said.
An 11-member team from the AHI led by Dr Ramakant Panda performed the beating-heart operation on 76-year-old Dr Singh, who had been complaining of fatigue and signs of chest pain in recent days owing to blockages.
Heart bypass, which the Prime Minister had undergone 18 years ago in London, involves grafting of arteries of veins from elsewhere in the patient's body to the coronary arteries to bypass atherosclerotic narrowings and improve the blood supply to the coronary circulation supplying the heart muscle. Six years ago, Dr Singh had also undergone an angioplasty.
