Photo Source: Babushahi Bureau
Punjab Surgeon’s ‘Bedi Cooling Turban’ innovation hailed for preventing brain injuries at 71st annual conference of IACTS
Babushahi Bureau
New Delhi, February 26, 2025: An innovation by a Punjab cardio-vascular surgeon has been hailed as a life-saving invention by experts. Dr Harinder Singh Bedi – Director of Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Sciences at the Park Grecian Hospital, Mohali – presented his invention to save the brain from low oxygen during surgery – the Bedi Cooling Turban – at the prestigious 71st Annual Conference of the Indian Association of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeons (IACTS) at the National Capital.
Dr Bedi has worked in advanced cardiovascular techniques at the Escorts Heart Delhi and the St Vincents Hospital in Sydney where he has operated upon cases with cooling of the whole body (hypothermia) to preserve organ function.
It is a well-known fact that any injury is better tolerated if the temperature of the injured organ is lowered. But in the brain, the problem is unique as whole body cooling has its own inherent problems and in brain-related surgery one needs only cooling of the brain. Any period of low oxygen to the brain can lead to a massive stroke.
So, Dr Bedi then thought of cooling just the brain. He designed a unique cooling turban which he designed after multiple attempts. Using his vast experience he was able to put the idea into practice.
He made a turban-like coil with plastic tubes. These were placed around the patients head after anesthesia. Now cold sterile water was pumped into these coils with a special machine so that the head alone got cooled.
The surgery was now done with the brain temperature low. The device has now been used in 48 cases of repairing blockage of the brain arteries with full preservation of the brain by Dr Bedi.
The 1700 National and International expert delegates of the IACTS 2025 were very impressed and asked a number of probing questions. The Cardiac Director of Max Hospitals Dr Rajneesh Malhotra in fact was very enthusiastic and suggested more clinical cases where it could be used to save the patient’s brain function.
He said that it was with such innovations that Indian surgeons were able to tackle otherwise hopeless cases. Dr Bedi said that he would patent the technique and publish it so that it could be used all over the world to help similar cases.