The Hindu Business Line : Radial lounge procedure gaining popularity among heart patients

ALMOST 12 years after the "radial lounge procedure" was first done in Amsterdam, the heart-related procedure is gaining popularity in India due to the convenience it offers patients.

"It took a while for doctors to get comfortable doing the new procedure where coronary angiography and angioplasty are done through the forearm, as against the traditional procedure through the groin," said Dr Rajesh Rajani, Head of Cardiology at Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital.

But the procedure is becoming more popular in the country, since it is easy on the consumer and his purse, he said. "In an angiography done using the procedure, the patient can walk out in about two hours. (A patient undergoing angioplasty using the procedure could be discharged in about seven hours.) There is no pain and not much in terms of follow-up action. Age is not a barrier for patients and the procedure is convenient even for older patients," he said.

Angiography involves getting a detailed picture of the heart, while angioplasty involves removing the blockages in the heart's blood vessels.

Once the procedure is done, the patient could sit for a while in specially designed radial lounges, which has an ambience of a regular relaxing room with a television, snacks, etc. The patient does not have to be admitted in the hospital, he points out, which in itself brings down costs.

A radial lounge procedure costs about Rs 12,000, which is less than the traditional methods, says Dr Rajani who has personally been doing the procedure in Mumbai for more than three years now. The procedure is being done in other parts of India for the last seven-odd years, he said.

The new procedure is significant against the backdrop that by 2010, one in every third person will have coronary artery disease.

And the age group of people suffering from the disease is only getting younger.

The mean age of this disease 75 years ago was around 65 years, which has come down to around 48 years in the present decade, according to data provided by the hospital.

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