Aortic diseases to a great extent are a problem of the elderly. In the last 50 years the life expectancy of an Indian has increased by 30 years. The technical developments have grown multi-folds helping the diagnosis of patients at an early stage. The above in combination with lifestyle, diabetes, increase in population have placed the country with a high incidence of cardiovascular and aortic disease.
Aortic diseases, include aortic dissections and aortic aneurysms. These can be catastrophic when not treated at the right time. Acute aortic dissections are critical, if the patient is not treated, the mortality rate is 50% at 24 hours. Very few centers in India are performing complex aortic surgeries and providing aortic emergency services.
Certain vascular grafts and endovascular stents are not available in India. Unlike many western countries, the cost of the procedures falls on the shoulder of the patients them self.
With a literacy rate close to 75% and the Gross national Income per capita $7060 (UK: Literacy rate is 99% and Gross national Income per capita is $43160), most of the patients present to the doctor at a late stage of disease. These patients have to accept a double burden, wherein they have to pay for the procedure and have loss of pay during hospital admission. In case of emergency, the patient have few questions to ask himself before he decides for treatment.
Where to go to get treated? How to reach the centre to get operated? how much will be the cost?
With so many stumbling blocks, we perform over 150 aortic surgeries annually, with a success rate equivalent to that of any international centers. To negate the non-availability of grafts and hybrid operating room, we customize our surgery, operating room and materials to suit the need of our people - “The ‘India’ genius Way”. This has helped us to become more innovative wherein we have described new techniques in International journals in field of aortic surgery.
To help the needy, we have formed a Charitable organization, which receives funds from Indian and many foreign nationalities. But, it is a drop in the ocean to help the large number of patients who are in need of aortic surgery. We have a reportedly over 300000 patients in a year suffering from aortic diseases in our country with a handful of centers performing aortic surgery. We conduct aortic conferences for the 15 years and the recently concluded International Aortic Summit witnessed over 15 international faculty and 300 delegates from across the globe. During the meeting there were demonstration of complex aortic surgeries followed by discussion on management of various aortic diseases by stalwarts in the field. This was an eye opener for many delegates who had participated. . In a larger perspective, our idea is to train more surgeons to gain first-hand experience in treating this deadly disease. We are conducting regular workshops and short courses for cardiac surgeons who are interested in aortic surgeries.
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