US Hails Heart Surgeon Dr. Harinder Singh Bedi’s Technique as World’s First Innovation

Chandigarh/Mohali/New Delhi, Nov 29, 2024

It is a matter of great pride for India that a surgical technique devised by a Punjab cardiac surgeon Dr Harinder Singh Bedi has been accepted as a World First Innovation and has been named after him.

Dr Harinder Singh Bedi – Director of Cardio Vascular & Thoracic Sciences at the Park Grecian Hospital , Mohali – was grappling with a vexing problem. The issue was that after lung surgery there can be a deadly complication called broncho pleural fistula (BPF) . In this the sutures give way and cause a severe infection and air leak .

Dr Bedi is both a Cardiac and a Thoracic Surgeon and has worked in Escorts Heart Delhi and the St Vincent’s Hospital Australia . He came up with the idea of using a artery used in heart surgery to be the base of a thick muscular buttress which is used to act as a living buttress sandwich on the divided bronchus so that a BPF does not develop.

This method was presented to the Editors of CTS Net – all accomplished senior American and European Cardio Thoracic Surgeons – who initially expressed surprise that this method had not been thought of by any other surgeon.

They examined the report very critically and then endorsed it whole heartedly as a major advance in improving patient care . They named it as – Bedi IMA Buttress – to honour the innovator .

Dr Bedi explained that lung surgery is commonly done in patients with cancer or TB – in both the risk of a BPF is high as immunity is lowered . This technique is a boon for such cases . The details can be accessed on CTS Net at https://www.ctsnet.org/article/bedi-ima-buttress . The CTS Net is the most prestigious site Internationally for Cardio Thoracic Surgeons .