Eleven hour long heart surgery on Indian PM over

New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh Saturday underwent an 11-hour long complex heart bypass
surgery at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
which "went off very well".

"Everything has gone off well," India's External Affairs
Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after 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, told
PTI.

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 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, Singh had also undergone an angioplasty.

The surgery, the first of its kind in AIIMS, was carried
out at operation theatre number five.

The team included Dr Vijay D'Silva and Dr Narendra
Garach of the AHI. Dr Sampat Kumar, a cardiac surgeon with
AIIMS, was also involved in the complex operation.

As the Prime Minister went under the surgeon's scalpel,
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the senior-most
minister in the Union Cabinet after Singh, stood in for him
and led the delegation-level talks with Kazakh President
Nursultan Nazarbayev at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Wishing Prime Minister a speedy recovery, Mukherjee
hoped he would resume the responsibilities soon.