Wockhardt Hospitals Blog

Portal hypertension is an increase in the blood pressure within a system of veins called the portal venous system. Normally, the veins come from the stomach, intestine, spleen and pancreas, merge into the portal vein, which then branches into smaller vessels and travels through the liver. If the vessels in the liver are blocked, it is hard for the blood to flow causing high pressure in the portal system.

Patients with portal hypertenson may undergo EGD to rule out esophageal varices, and perhaps correct them at the same time with banding or sclerotherapy. Acute or severe complications may be treated with intravenous octreotide or terlipressin (an antidiuretic hormone analogue) to decrease the portal pressure. Octreotide inhibits the release of vasodilator hormones such as glucagon, indirectly causing splanchnic vasoconstriction and decreased flow into the portal system.

For those of us who spends a large time at our workplace sitting on a chair and working on the computer tend to forget about our sitting position.How you sit on your desk affects the spine. A posture that keeps your spine in its position can prevent you from backaches and other spinal problems.

Adjust your chair at the proper height : Tall people tend to slump towards the desk and short people tend to slump forwards.. Keep your feet flat on the floor and keep your knee at a 90 degree angle.

Take frequent breaks and stretch yourself .Do not work more than 2 hours on your desk without taking a break.

Avoid leaning too much towards your desk. Keep your computer at the right angle so as to avoid straining forward or backward.

Good Posture:Sit with your back firmly supported on the back of the chair.The basis for good posture is maintaining a "neutral spine."

Having good posture eases a lot of stress on the spine and promotes a healthy spine. There are several ways to change your posture. One is by standing up straight and the other is by sitting up straight.

If you are a young urban professional spending more than 10 hours of your working away at climbing up the corporate ladder and also fighting to keep your job, you should know that all time which you think you are spending to make your life more meaningful might have different repercussion to your health.

Today various Work-related upper limb pain is becoming more and more common in Indian cities,specially the metros and among IT professionals.

The problem may be ascribed to a number of reasons such as bad sitting posture and the viewing of the computer screen from various awkward angles, not taking enough breaks from work,sedentary lifestyles, not paying attention to view the computer at the right anglesf and incorrect head and neck posture leads to upper limb pain frequently.

"Arthritis has long been ignored, as people do not think it is life threatening," says rheumatologist Ramesh Jois from Wockhardt Hospitals,Bangalore

"It is very important for the doctor to be able to diagnose the disease firstly and, secondly, get it treated immediately," says Jois.

"There is great chance of getting the disease within control if early intervention is sought . This can prevent permanent disabilities," says Jois.

However what is increasingly becoming more and more apparent that the younger people too are slowly falling prey to Arthritis.There is a myth that only old people suffer from the disease.

"Anybody can suffer from Arthtritis, from the middle-aged to the very young," says Jois. "Westernised lifestyle, obesity, change in lifestyle, not leading a physically active life, using the computer for most of the time , without using the correct posture all lead to different types of this disease including Arthritis.

Patient interest groups are being formed that will be endorsed by the medical fraternity. "Arthritis is a chronic disease and people are in this for the long term," he says. "It is more important to know what people think."

An easy way to prevent infection :Hand washing is a simple habit that can help keep you healthy. Learn the benefits of good hand hygiene, when to wash your hands and how to clean them properly.

Hand washing is a simple habit, something most people do without thinking. Yet hand washing, when done properly, is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick. This simple habit requires only soap and warm water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer — a cleanser that doesn't require water. Do you know the benefits of good hand hygiene and when and how to wash your hands properly?

The annual observance was launched in 2008 as an initiative of the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap. It is endorsed by a wide array of governments, international institutions, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, private companies and individuals.

Change in handwashing behavior is critical to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of reducing deaths among children under the age of five by two-thirds by 2015 worldwide.

Despite the proven health benefits of hand washing, many people don't practice this habit as often as they should.Throughout the day you accumulate germs on your hands from a variety of

sources, such as direct contact with people, contaminated surfaces, foods, even animals and animal waste. If you don't wash your hands frequently enough, you can infect yourself with these germs by touching your eyes, nose or mouth. And you can spread these germs to others by touching them orby touching surfaces that they also touch, such as doorknobs.

Infectious diseases that are commonly spread through hand-to-hand contact include the common cold, flu and several gastrointestinal disorders, such as infectious diarrhea. While most people will get over a cold, the flu can be much more serious. Some people with the flu, particularly older adults and people with chronic medical problems, can develop pneumonia. The

combination of the flu and pneumonia, in fact, is the eighth-leading cause of death among Americans.

Inadequate hand hygiene also contributes to food-related illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as many as 76 million Americans get a food-borne illness each year. Of these, about 5,000 die as a result of

their illness. Others experience the annoying signs and symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Good hand-washing techniques include washing your hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Antimicrobial wipes or towelettes are just as effective as soap and water in cleaning your hands but aren't as good as alcohol-based sanitizers.

Antibacterial soaps have become increasingly popular in recent years. However, these soaps are no more effective at killing germs than is regular soap. Using antibacterial soaps may lead to the development of bacteria that are resistant to the products' antimicrobial agents — making it even harder to kill these germs in the future. In general, regular soap is fine. The combination of scrubbing your hands with soap — antibacterial or not — and rinsing them with water loosens and removes bacteria from your hands.

Degenerative disc diseases can now be replaced with an artificial cervical disc. The biggest advantage of cervical artificial disc is the preservation of movement operated segment. The simple surgical intervention helps quicker healing and faster recovery time because of minimum hospital stay and faster return to work.

Till now, the most common treatment for patients with degenerative discs in the cervical spine was spinal fusion. In this procedure a surgeon removes the damaged disc then implants a bone graft and metal plate to fuse the vertebrae together. During artificial disc replacement surgery, the damaged disc is removed and replaced with an artificial disc, a stainless-steel device with a ball-in-trough design intended to allow for replication of normal motion.

The artificial cervical disc mimics the normal functions of healthy spinal disc for patients suffering from chronic and persistent neck pain which triggers and radiates right through the shoulders, arms and fingers can be relived with this safe and simple surgical treatment option, according to Dr Deshpande V Rajakumar, consultant, neurosurgeon, Wockhardt Hospital, Bangalore.

This is one of the biggest medical studies of its kind. Surgeons incorporating artificial cervical discs in their treatment regime recommend this procedure for young and active patients who suffer from chronic cervical discopathy symptoms and are uncomfortable to opt for surgical fusion of inter-vertebral discs. Experts are of the opinion that the advanced cervical artificial disc technology could well benefit surgery of the degenerative discs at any level of the neck - from C2/C3 to C7/T1, he added.

Operation of the cervical spine with the Artificial Disc Replacement procedure is performed with the patient lying on the back. A small incision is made on one side of the front of the neck to expose the disc between the vertebrae after pulling aside the surrounding fat and muscle tissues. The intervertebral disc and, in some cases, a portion of the bone around the nerve roots and/or spinal cord is removed to relieve the compressed neural structures to create additional space.

The cervical disc is then implanted in the space with the help of an appropriate surgical instrument.. The incision is closed and dressed. According to Dr Rajakumar, if a person is anticipating a cervical surgery, it is important to find out on being a potential candidate for a cervical artificial disc implant. Patients should also discuss the risks and limitations post surgery.

Patients with conditions like local infection, inflammation, pregnancy, morbid obesity, fever, mental illness, osteoporosis, and paediatrics are not advised for this procedure.

According to the Deloitte study, the number of Americans going abroad for treatment was set to double from 75,000 last year to 150,000 this year, before zooming to 600,000 next year. With a heart bypass costing up to US$80,000 (Dh293,840) in the US and as little as $10,000 in India, according to McKinsey, the economics are obvious.

Indian Corporate Hospitals has seen an significant increase of overseas patients in the last 3 to 4 years . Dr Ramakanta Panda, India’s most famous heart surgeon, who has operated on Indian Prime Minister , "Dr Manmohan Singh" operates on more than 400 International patients.

According to Dr Panda Of late there has been a surge in government ministers and senior businessmen, from Africa and the Middle East , out of four or five consultations about one is operated.

We probably do not do more than two or three American or European inpatients in a month,” Dr Panda estimates. “Health is something people are very scared to outsource. It’s very easy to outsource IT Services, but outsourcing life seems very dangerous.”

Estimates of the scale of medical outsourcing vary wildly. Within months of last year’s Deloitte study, a study by McKinsey, using a tighter definition, put the number of medical tourists worldwide at just 60,000 to 80,000 a year, a tenth of Deloitte’s estimate for the US alone. McKinsey estimated the US provided just 10 per cent of medical tourists.

Wockhardt expects the number of foreign patients to rise by 38 per cent this year. But that will still leave it a fraction of the company’s 55,000 to 60,000 domestic patients.

What could make this happen is if large US companies and insurance companies incorporated a medical tourism option.