Wockhardt Hospitals Blog

At Wockhardt Hospitals we believe that a heart ailment is not cured until the patient walks out feeling as good as new.Which is why our 360 degree heart care is a combination of state of art surgery and world class port operative facilities. From Cardio workouts to monitoring we help you to get back on your feet as soon as possible. Because we don’t just perform surgeries, we put people back in their lives.

The Wockhardt Cardiac Rehabilitation center is exclusively meant for post operative care to heart patients. We believe in exercise programs that are tailor made to suit the patients’ medical conditions. You are requested to contact doctors at wockhardt or your GP before beginning any exercise program.

Poor breathing robs energy and negatively affects mental alertness. Unless breathing is exercised, aging affects the respiratory system as follows:

Stiffness: The rib cage and surrounding muscles get stiff causing inhalation to become difficult.

Less elasticity and weak muscles leave stale air in the tissues of the lungs and prevents fresh oxygen from reaching the blood stream.

Rapid, Shallow Breathing: This type of breathing, often caused by poor posture and weak or stiff muscles, leads to poor oxygen supply, respiratory disease, sluggishness, or heart disease.

The following exercises are simple ways to deepen breathing and to cleanse the lungs. These exercises will also increase energy and decrease tension.

Lie flat on your back on a reclined bed and get a proper sense of deep breathing. (You can use pillows ) You also need to support the site of surgery with a cushion. The natural course of breathing in that position will create a slight rise in the stomach upon inhaling and a slight fall upon exhaling.)

In a life affirming incident that renews hope and faith among millions of patients requiring organ transplants, Wockhardt Hospitals,Mulund successfully performed city’s first cadaver liver transplant for the year 2009.The liver surgery was performed at Wockhardt Hospitals,Mumbai led by Dr. S K Mathur, Senior Consultant Surgeon, HPB Surgery & Liver Transplantation, Wockhardt Hospitals.

Mr. Kathuria, 62-year old man who was suffering from advanced liver cirrhosis got a new life by a liver transplant from a 57-year old brain dead patient. This is a successfully completed cadaver liver transplant which has proved once again these kind of complex and delicate, complex can be successfully conducted if the procedure is done within the ‘golden hour’.

Most commonly used Liver transplant technique is orthotopic transplantation, where the original liver is removed and the donor organ is placed in the same location as the original liver.

Liver transplantation is now used in any acute and chronic condition in irreversible liver dysfunction,provided the organ donor do not have conditions to impede liver transplant. A good donor is someone who is in good physical and mental health, older than the age of 18 and free from:

• HIV infection
• Known viral hepatitis
• Active alcoholism with frequent and heavy alcohol intake
• Psychiatric illness under treatment
• History of malignancy
• Heart and lung disease requiring medications
• Diabetes mellitus of greater than 7 years duration

Most Liver transplant are rejected by the recipient unless immunosuppressive drugs are used.Most recipients receive corticosteroids plus a calcinuerin inhibitor such as tacrolimus or Cyclosporin plus a antimetabolite such as Mycophenolate Mofetil.

However Liver transplantation is unique in that the risk of chronic rejection also decreases over time, although recipients need to take immunosuppresive medication for the rest of their lives.

To know more about Wockhardt Hospitals Medical Breakthroughs in Liver Transplant and Digestive Disease Click here

A team of 10 doctors at Wockhardt Hospitals Bangalore led by Dr. Shabeer Ahmed, Minimal Access Surgeon, Wockhardt Hospitals, successfully removed a cancerous tumor involving the abdominal aorta of a 19 year old girl, after a 7 hour long surgery. Saleema (name changed) travelled all the way from Jaipur to undergo the surgery at Wockhardt Hospitals,Bangalore to remove Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumour (PNET), a tumor that originates in cells from the Primitive Neural Crest. This cancerous tumor which involving abdominal aorta is a rare case in the medical history and there have been no reports found on such a rare tumor in the medical literature (reference – Cochrane Library –an international medical library, a collection of databases in medicine and other healthcare specialties provided by the Cochrane Collaboration and other organizations).

Most PNET’s occurs in the brain, extremities, pelvis, chest wall and mediastinum. This is the first quoted instance where a PNET was found in the abdomen involving the Bifurcation Abdominal Aorta. Surgical removal is usually a big challenge and it becomes more when it involves big vessels like the aorta – the big vessel which carries purified blood from heart to other organs.

Generally PNET is a rare tumor, usually occurring in children under 10 years old belongs to the Ewing family of tumors.The Ewing family of tumors is a group of cancers that includes Ewing tumor of bone (ETB or Ewing sarcoma of bone), extraosseous Ewing tumors (EOE tumors), primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET or peripheral neuroepithelioma), and Askin tumors (PNET of the chest wall). These tumors all come from the same type of stem cell.

During the surgery it was observed that the tumor had spread through the left-ureter, common aorta, bifurcation and the tumor was excised en-bloc along with the aorta.

According to Dr. Shabeer Ahmed, Minimal Access Surgeon, Wockhardt Hospitals, “Most PNET’s occurs in the brain, extremities, pelvis, chest wall and mediastinum. This is the first quoted instance where a PNET was found in the abdomen involving the Bifurcation Abdominal Aorta. Surgical removal is usually a big challenge and it becomes more when it involves big vessels like the aorta – the big vessel which carries purified blood from heart to other organs.”

This was a first of its kind unique medical breakthrough which the Doctors at Wockhardt Hospitals found themselves to be a part of.The Pediatric Cardiac team at Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai at Mulund performed a life saving surgery on a 4 hour old baby gifting a life and in the process creating a new heart.

Pediatric Cardiac Consultants at Wockhardt Hospital have successfully performed a critical 2-hour beating heart surgery to allow the flow of blood from the baby’s heart to her lungs, thereby enabling the child to breathe normal. This life threatening, rare cardiac complication in neonates is called Pulmonary Atresia, that requires to be addressed in a critical window period of just a few hours of the baby’s birth, was accomplished in the state-of-the-art dedicated pediatric cardiac set up of the hospital.

A few minutes after her birth out of a planned caesarian section in a private city hospital the baby was shifted to Wockhardt Hospitals at Mulund .Within four hours of her birth, the baby was wheeled in for a beating heart BT Shunt procedure wherein a synthetic tube (shunt) was inserted to connect a new artery the sub clavian artery -- to the pulmonary artery. The sub clavian artery supplies blood to the arms but is now redirected to share supply to the arms and the lungs.

The child suffered from a rare congenital disorder called 'Pulmonary Atresia" where the the pulmonary valve of the heart which controls blood to the lungs was not developed and no blood was reaching the lungs. The child, however survived for a few critical hours due to ductus arteriosus, a valve that is meant for its fetal existence only. This valve shuts close naturally after birth and the corrective surgery was required within this window.

Pulmonary atresia is a congenital malformation of the pulmonary valve in which the valve orifice fails to develop. The valve is completely closed thereby obstructing the outflow of blood from the heart to the lungs.The only source of pulmonary blood flow is a patent ductus arteriosus. Due to this, the newborn baby is blue in color and pulmonary atresia can usually be diagnosed within hours or minutes after birth.

Foetal Echocardiography is used to diagnose heart defects before a child is born. The diagnosis done through foetal echocardiography helps in treating the heart defect in the child at an early stage especially when many times some interventions needs to be done immediately after the birth. Since foetal echocardiography was done in this case the defect was identified and immediately after her birth the baby was brought to Wockhardt Hospitals for treatment.”

In India, over 2.5 million children are born with heart defects every year and many lives are lost due to lack of proper infrastructure, awareness, and poor planning at time of birth. Some 3 per cent of these cases are of those born with Pulmonary Atresia. Timely detection and early treatment can not only save a child but also help him lead a normal and healthy life.

For more information and scheduling appointments with Doctors at Wockhardt Hospitals write into enquiries@wockhardthospitals.net