BOMBAY, 3 December — More than 50,000 open heart and bypass surgeries are performed in India every year. The number is the highest in any Asian country and next only to the US and the UK, according to an Indian medical expert.
“Going by its quality of service, equipment and success rate, India is now in a position to attract patients from across the globe for getting their heart surgeries done,” Dr. S. Bhattacharya, a leading international heart surgeon, has said.
He was speaking to media persons at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay recently to announce the hosting of the 15th biennial congress of the Association of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons of Asia (ATCSA) at the hotel from Dec. 6 to 9. Dr. M.A. Cheema of Pakistan is the president of ATCSA and Dr. Tong Ming-Chuan of Singapore its secretary general.
Dr. Bhattacharya said that the waiting list in India was much shorter than in certain countries “as India has one of the highest number of highly qualified and experienced surgeons”. The wait for surgery in countries in the UK, for instance, could take up to six months, he said.
Dr. K.R. Shetty, chairperson of the organizing committee of the congress and director of the Cumballa Hill Heart Institute, said the conference was expected to attract over 500 national and international participants, including six from the Middle East - two of them from Saudi Arabia.
The conference will discuss the pioneering achievements in heart surgery, including the use of robotics in cardiovascular surgery. Tissue engineering and its impact on cardiovascular diseases, coronary artery bypass surgery without using heart lung machine, minimally invasive coronary artery bypass surgery, transplantation of human heart and lung, the future of artificial heart as well as recent advances in treating birth defects of the heart and heart valve diseases, and prevention of sudden death are among the other topics to be covered at the conference.
According to Dr. Shetty, the conference will also discuss the progress of cardiovascular surgery in the next decade and have a teaching session on “How to write a scientific paper and conduct a research project. The association, formed 30 years ago, which covers leading cardiac surgeons from 19 Asian countries, is holding its conference in the country after a gap of 20 years when Madras hosted the country’s first such event. London’s Sir Magdi Yacoub, acclaimed for transplantation of human heart and heart lungs; Taiwan’s Dr. Shu Hsun-Chu, known for valve replacement and transplant; Germany’s Dr. Jorg Ostermeyer renowned for surgical electrophysiology, will be among those giving presentations at the congress.
