September 24, 2016 in Lviv genious of medicine of Ukraine and Poland spoke about Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (TEPH). It was the second day of the Nationwide Conference dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Lviv cardiac surgery (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1819253838361367&id=100008303044326).

Within the Nationwide Conference, LCCF of “Sister Dalila», PHURDA implemented the Project #BreathOfSuccess, as TEPH is the only type of pulmonary hypertension, which can be cured through surgery, removing blood clots. This is the Breath of Success for PH patients.

The highlight of the second Conference day was the live session of the 2 surgery rooms, where patients were getting surgery on removal of blood clots in the TEPH.

Speakers: Lubomir Kulik (Lviv), Yuri Sirenko (Kyiv), Andrzej Biderman (Warsaw), Adam Torbitski (Warsaw), Marian Zembala (Zabrze).

Dignitaries: Vasyl Lazoryshynets (President of Cardiovascular Surgeons  Association of Ukraine), Konstantin Rudenko (chief heart surgeon of DOH in Ukraine), Vasyl Lonchyna (Chicago).

Dignitaries congratulated Lviv heart surgery with the 50th anniversary.

Lubomir Kulik publicly wore a T-shirt with the symbols of PH and thanked representatives of LCCF of “Sister Dalila», PHURDA for the work towards supporting PH patients, their quality and duration of life. He also spoke about thrombolysis in the pulmonary arteries, namely about:

– TEPH medicine therapy as palliative tool that reduces the severity of symptoms but does not prolong life and can serve as a bridge therapy to prepare patients for surgical treatment.

– The importance of the confirmed patient diagnosis to dropout other PH reasons and the possibility of surgery. There were cases that during the operation diagnosis of TEPH wasn’t confirmed;

– Pulmonary angiogram as “gold” standard of pulmonary vascular assessment for diagnostics of TEPH, which in 91% of cases allows to confirm the diagnosis, determine the exact location and prevalence of thrombotic material and assess its accessibility to surgical manipulation;

Yuri Sirenko (Kyiv) spoke about the first two years of the PH center in Kiev. He focused on the PH issues in Ukraine, namely:

– Limited access to PH diagnosis, which is why patients come to the PH center already with III-IV class of the disease;

– Limited access to medicines (only “Revatio” and “Ventavis”);

– Absence of patent in Ukraine for Swann Ganz catheter, used to estimate the parameters of central hemodynamics of PH patient (blood flow in blood vessels, the blood pressure in the vessels).

Andrzej Biderman (Warsaw) shared his experience of surgical treatment of TEPH.

Adam Torbitski (Warsaw) spoke about the possibility of endovascular treatment of TEPH.

The result was a active debate between the speakers and conference participants about the diagnosis, medical therapy and surgical intervention in TEPH.

We thank Lviv Regional Hospital and Professor Lubomir Kulik for the organization of Nationwide Conference dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Lviv cardiac surgery. We hope for fruitful cooperation in the future.