The department of Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) since inception of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS) in Prasanthigram 17 years ago, has been a flagship program delivering, a high standard of medical care with the support of fully trained dedicated staff and state-of-art technology. Over these 17 years, the entire gamut of cardiac surgery except heart transplants have been routinely performed on an average of over 1000 procedures every year. The case mix has been very exceptional, one third being congenital heart diseases, one third valve replacement / repair and the remaining coronary revascularizations with 90% of them being off pump procedures.Following is a birds eye view of the number of procedures done.
CTVS procedures till May 2008
- Bypass - 2201
- Valves - 6670
- Congenitals - 8341
- Others - 854
- TOTAL - 18066
The department has two fully equipped state-of-art Operation Theatres, with a complement of three Sarns Heart-Lung machines and modern anaesthesia and monitoring modalities. Vital intra-operative ancillary support in the form of, Intra Aortic Balloon Pump, Blood Cardioplegia, cell saver and other blood saving procedures, are routinely employed. In complex cases, centrifugal pumps are used and when needed total circulatory arrest is routinely practiced, particularly for complex aortic surgeries. Post-operative patient care is delivered by a 20 bed intensive care unit, equipped with the best patient monitoring and life support systems and a full complement of 24/7 critical nursing care.
To suport these activities, there is a full complement of 50 pre and post-operative ward beds. The department is approved and certified for the DNB program in Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Academically, the department has been very active, in presenting papers at regional and national meetings, and three original articles have been published, one each year in international cardio-thoracic journals.The CTVS dept has a very productive working relationship with an accomplished cardiology department, consisting of dedicated and fully trained staff. The cardiology department has two fully functioning cath labs working 24/7 with a 12 bedded Coronary Care Unit and a 50 bedded ward.
The uniqueness of these two departments has been, practicing time honoured eastern philosophy of medical care, supplemented by, western trained cardiac surgeons and cardiologists. These doctors are all internationally recognised in their fields and are actively using advanced technology in their daily practice. They periodically visit SSSIHMS, to teach and perform procedures, which enable this department to deliver cutting edge advances in surgical techniques. The following are a few of this dedicated visiting faculty:
Dr. Choudhary Voleti was trained Mt.Sainai and Long Island Jewish Hospitals in New York, and practiced Cardiac surgery for three decades in united states. He was the Director of Cardiac surgery for the Southern California Kaiser Permanante Cardiac Surgery program. He was also the Director of Cardiac Surgery and Chairman dept of general surgery for Stead Heart Center, in Pomona Valley, California before taking early retirement in 2001. Since then he has been the chairman Cardiac Sciences, SSSIHMS.
Dr. V Jeevanandam, is the professor and Chief of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, University of Chicago. Apart from developing expertise in high risk valve and combined procedures he is a leading heart transplant surgeon in the U.S.A. He routinely travels all over the world sharing his expertise in Heart Transplant Surgery. He has been associated with SSSIHMS from 1993-94 after the international cardiac symposia held at SSSIHMS PG.
Dr. Srikanth Karvande has been pracicing Cardiac surgery in the USA for the last two decades. He was the Professor, Division of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, University of Utah, School of Medicine, as well as Project Director for Thoracic Surgery and Director of Lung Transplant Program till 2007. Apart from being a very prolific publisher he has been very well recognised as a seriously dedicated participant in residency training programs.
Dr. Stephen Gundry A practicing cardiac surgeon for the past three decades in california has the unique ability of being not only an accomplished pediatric cardiac surgeon but also an adult cardiac surgeon. He has played a pivotal role in the pediatric heart transplant program at Loma Linda University. At present he is the director of International heart institute in Palm Springs, USA.
Dr. Sudhir Srivastava came first in 1993-94 and at that time Minimally invasive coronary bypass grafting (MIDCAB) and Thoracab was just beginning to gain acceptance in USA . Dr Srivastava helped our cardiac surgeons to perform one of first MIDCAB/ Thoracab in INDIA . Today he is the authority on Robotic Cardiac Surgery and has recently joined the faculty of University of Chicago.
As it is evident, the Cardiac Surgery program has been the crown jewel of SSSIHMS PG. The service rendered is totally free of cost and for majority of the patients, this is the last resort. The entire spectrum of Cardiac surgery from Neo-natal Switch procedures to Ascending Arotic Replacements with valve conduits, and complex combined procedures are routinely performed. Despite, the high risk profile of the patients due to advanced clinical condition and poor protoplasm (socio economic background), the surgical results have been comparable to the best Institutions in the world, both in morbitity and mortality.
With the blessings of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, we are organising CT CME - 2008. The target groups for this program are postgraduate students both DNB & MCh and interested members of IACTS. This programme will be conducted on 20 & 21st September 2008 and will concentrate on
- Live demonstration of Complex Cardiac Procedures.
- Video presentation and discussion of surgical techniques from the collection of complex surgcial procedures done at SSSIHMS.
- Didactic Lectures covering basics to advanced aspects of Cardiac surgical practice.
- Live presentation and discussion of long and short cases.
- Presentation of selected topics to aid preperation for DNB / MCh examination.
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