Wockhardt Hospitals Blog

Doctor Sameer Diwale, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeon, Wockhardt Heart Center at LB Nagar talks about the procedure for doing a Bypass Surgery and the benefits which accompanies this surgery

Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeon, The term “bypass surgery” was very prominent in the headlines across the media recently. This was due to the fact that our Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh underwent this procedure a couple of months ago .

What does bypass surgery mean? When is it recommended for patients? What are the benefits of this operation? What are the different ways in which it can be performed? These are some common queries that came immediately to mind when one hears this term.

Bypass surgery means exactly what it says. Wherever there is an obstruction to the smooth flow of blood to the heart, heart surgeons can create a “bypass” road so as to restore the blood supply to the heart. This is exactly like building a flyover over a busy junction that is blocked due to heavy traffic. Surgeons are trained to remove (spare) arteries or veins from the patient’s own body and use them to construct bypass channels.

Bypass surgery generally is recommended for patients who have more than one block in their arteries that supply blood to the heart. Bypass is also recommended if there is a single block but it is at a critical location. In this situation, balloon angioplasty/stent placement is not possible or is considered risky. Bypass Surgery is strongly recommended for diabetic patients with one or more blocks in view of its superior long term results.

The greatest benefit of the bypass operation is that it eliminates the risk of having a sudden major heart attack in patients suffering from blocked circulation to their hearts . Therefore, this is a life-saving operation. The other major benefit is that a patient’s quality of life improves dramatically after the operation as he/she no longer suffers from chest pain. The patient is free to pursue an active lifestyle without the constant worry and anxiety associated with heart disease. Moreover, the beneficial effects of this operation lasts for 15 to 20 years if due care is taken.

Bypass surgery is conventionally carried out using a heart-lung machine and the heart is stopped for the duration of the operation. This is a very safe and standard technique and millions of patients have undergone the operation in this manner. The operation is also done on a beating heart which is a more recent technique and has certain advantages over the traditional method, especially in patients suffering from lung or kidney disease and patients who are at risk of having a stroke (paralytic attack).

Wockhardt Hospitals Heart Care is a Center of Excellence and offers both the above techniques of bypass surgery. Great care is taken to assess the profile of each patient so as to select the most appropriate technique. This approach has resulted in outstanding success rate for bypass surgery, that is at par with the best hospitals in the world. Our focus is to offer all our patients an active, long and healthy life.

Wockhardt Heart center, LB Nagar, Hyderabad has in recent days seen a string of patients coming in from Uzbekistan

Recently Mr. Radjabov Toshmurot a 55-year-old man diagnosed with Triple vessel Disease and is also a Diabetic and Hypertensive along with a history of Renal Failure, got operated at Wockhardt Heart Centre,Hyderabad. He was diagnosed with a Triple vessel disease back in Uzbekistan, and was advised to undergo a Bypass Surgery.

Normally a patient from Uzbekistan would choose Russia as his Health Care destination and in recent times some people have even recognized India as a quality provider for Healthcare services, but mostly it’s been limited to Delhi, because of direct connectivity that Delhi has with Uzbekistan.

However in the last few Months we at Wockhardt Heart Centre have treated about 10 people from Uzbekistan with Complex Clinical History. What was common to all these people was that they were all High Risk Procedures with associated complications. Mr. Radjabov is one such case as since he has a Renal Failure Complication and it was essential that his kidney was kept away from developing more complication during the surgery.

That is why the Doctors at Wockhardt Hospitals performed a Beating Heart Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery, for him. The surgery lasted for approximately two and a half hours and during this entire duration there no Cardio Pulmonary support. Similarly the last patient that we had received from Uzbekistan had an Associated Double Valve Replacement along with the CABG, We had to operate on that patient for six hours straight.” Says Dr. Sameer Diwale, Cardiothoracic surgeon, who’s expertise have attracted these patients to Wockhardt Hospitals Hyderabad.

At Wockhardt Hospitals ,it gives us a great pleasure to see that we are not only establishing Quality Healthcare but we are now doing these complex surgical operations at the Global level.
Dr. Sameer has been invited to participate in Continuous Medical Education Programmes by the doctors From Uzbekistan. Dr Sameer adds, “ Its not only patient care, its also about changing the way Healthcare is administered world over. I feel that it is of immense importance that people keep abreast of what is happening in the Medical field, and its through little exchanges like these that we learn.”

This is a perfect example of a Globalized Healthcare System at its best, good for the country good for the World but most Importantly good for every individual who demands quality Health care. It’s about Empowering people at the Individual level.