Holguín, reference in pacemaker implants in Cuba
- Written by Lourdes Pichs Rodríguez
- Published in Health
- Hits: 1925
The reopening of the operating room for pacemaker implants at the Cardiology Service of the provincial hospital Vladimir Ilich Lenin in Holguín, responds to the high interventional activity of this health center, where the largest number of these devices is implanted in Cuba, after the National Institute of Cardiology.
Last year 369 of these procedures were carried out at the institution, whose objective is to maintain the heart rate in patients with problems in the heart rhythm regulation system.
The artificial pacemaker is a small electronic device implanted under the skin of the patient's chest to help control his heartbeat.
According to the memories of cardiologist Edel Lachataignerais Popa, who was the first head of the Cardiology Service of the center, this technique was performed for the first time at the Lenin hospital on May 10, 1980 to an old woman patient who suffered from a symptomatic complete Ventricular Atrial Block.
“This procedure was carried out with the support of the Radiology Service in Room No. 4 of X-rays, which was previously prepared and sterilized. It was perfected and incorporated others, such as Resynchronizers and implantable automatic defibrillators in the 2000-2010,” he wrote.
Since that period, the Cardiology Service occupies the second place in pacemaker implantation in the country, with the participation of a new generation of cardiologists, including Dr. Reybert Jesús Domínguez Pérez, a specialist in this treatment for some years.
The specialty of Cardiology in the province was created shortly after the inauguration of the Lenin hospital in 1965. In its beginnings it depended on the Internal Medicine service in whose consultations and rooms the patients with some heart pathology were treated.
Dr. Eduardo de Valle y Morejón, was one of the precursors of this specialty in the Holguín health center and one of the first to dedicate himself to teaching.
