CHENNAI: India has the dubious distinction of being the heart disease capital of the world, with about 60 percent of the world’s cardiac patients in the country, said Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group said here on Tuesday.
He was speaking at a function to mark the completion of 25,000 coronary bypass procedures including 10,000 beating heart bypass operations by Apollo Hospital.
Until 10 years ago, these operations were being done by conventional techniques involving the use of heart lung machine. At present nearly 90 percent of the coronary techniques were done using beating heart surgeries. “This has resulted in a very significant reduction of post operative complications and a reduction in hospital mortality to around 0.6 percent,” said Dr Reddy.
He said that the commitment of team of cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons made it possible for the hospital to achieve this record in 25 years.
Speaking on the occasion Dr M R Girinath, chief cardio vascular surgeon said that the hospital continued to innovate and pioneer new techniques. “We train new surgeons, cardiologists, anesthetists and paramedical staff for the future. During the present decade, the excellent results both in short term and medium term have convinced us that beating heart surgery is an excellent operation for the kind of patients that we see in India,” he said.
Dr Girinath said that the operations in Apollo were cost –effective, when compared to that of the western nations. While it was being done for about Rs two to three lakh here, it would be more than triple the amount in countries like the United States. “Safety is important to us. We don’t believe in compromising safety for cost-effectiveness,” he added.
Preetha Reddy, managing director of the hospital said that she was indeed happy to see the patients returning to their normal lives. “They trusted the hospital and the doctors,” she said.