German surgeon conducts master class in Almaty

Professor Werner Haberbosch, head of the cardiology department at SRH Zentralklinikum clinic in the German city of Suhl came to Almaty to conduct a master class heart and vessels sugary for his colleagues from Kazakhstan. The surgery was made ay the Central Clinical Hospital of Almaty, Tengrinews reports.

Kazakh doctors have been doing heart surgeries involving coronary stenting for some time already, but the German professor came to teach local professionals to use a new technique. It involves use of stents of new generation, which, unlike traditional ones, are covered in medication preventing further thrombosis. A stent is a small mesh 'tube' used to treat narrow or weak arteries. It is inserted into a natural conduit in the body to prevent or counteract a disease-induced localized flow constriction.

“We are introducing the latest generation of stents that have a hybrid form which enables is to implant them in more convoluted vessels and smaller arteries. (...) The arrival of the professor is an exchange of experience. We still have a gap in the level of healthcare development. It is not about the quantity and complexity of the heart surgeries, but about experience. We started making such operations later (than European doctors),“ the head of the hospital's Interventional Cardiology Department Daniyar Makhanov said.

The master class was held under Salamatty Kazakhstan program, a state-run effort to develop healthcare in Kazakhstan that involves provision of free medical aid to Kazakhstanis. Around 15-20 thousand heart and blood vessels surgeries are made free of charge in Kazakhstan every year. "All a patient has to do is consult a cardiologist in a clinic according to his or her place of residence. If the patient needs a surgery the cardiologist refers the patient for the surgery. Then the patient chooses a clinic he or she wants to have the surgery in and is entered onto the waiting list," Daniyar Makhanov explained. 

Reporting by Vladimir Prokopenko, writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina