CHENNAI:
Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, has completed more than 50,000 cardiac surgeries. This includes 22,300 beating heart surgeries since the inception of the Beating Heart Surgery Programme in 1997.
M.R. Girinath, chief cardiovascular surgeon, Apollo Hospitals Group, said the 50,000 cardiac surgeries performed from March 1984 to October 2018 included those for congenital heart diseases, valvular heart diseases, coronary heart diseases, and transplants.
“We have done close to 6,000 valve surgeries, 3,500 congenital surgeries, 98 transplants and six artificial hearts. A total of 39,853 coronary artery bypass surgeries were performed till date,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
The NCD problem
Noting that the country was facing a problem of non-communicable diseases (NCD), he said, “The incidence of Coronary Artery Diseases was increasing rapidly. It was 2% in 1960 and reached 10.5% by 2000. It is still rising and right now, the incidence is 13%.” L.F. Sridhar, consultant cardiac surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, said till October 2018, they had done nearly 22,000 beating heart surgeries. “This has had excellent results with very low mortality, and has been performed in elderly patients with multiple problems,” he said.
Prathap C. Reddy, executive chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, said: “The World Economic Forum has said that by 2030, 70% of deaths will be from NCDs. The Indian cost is going to be 4.8 trillion dollars, which is 50% of the GDP. I have requested Ministries and the Prime Minister to increase at least 3% to 5% of GDP to make Indian healthcare stand up to the test of time.” Noting that cardiologists were seeing young persons with heart diseases, he highlighted the need for prevention and awareness.
Preetha Reddy, vice-chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Group, said a total of 1.70 lakh cardiac surgeries had been performed by the group. These surgeries had 99% success rate, she added. On the contradictory statements made by a technician of Apollo Hospitals before the Justice A. Arumughaswamy (retd.) Commission probing the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, Reddy refused to comment.
“We have given all information and the court is going through it very thoroughly,” he said.
