The Hindu Business Line : `Awake heart surgery' gathering acceptance

A NEW lease of life was offered to the 73-year old Mr V.M. John of Mumbai who had the first `awake heart surgery' at the Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai.

Seeing his recovery, 12 more people from Kolhapur have already given in their applications to the hospital and a 31-year-old man is all set to undergo this treatment next week.

This is the first time in the Western part of the country that such a surgery has been conducted without general anaesthesia, without heart lung machine and without ventilator support.

Recalling the entire operation, Dr Sandeep Honnekeri, the cardio-vascular surgeon who conducted the surgery along with Dr Vispute, cardiac anaesthetist, said Mr John had come to them after having done an angioplasty a year ago. The pain had returned after four months and being allergic to general anaesthesia, Mr John decided to give this a try.

The surgery took about three hours and 24 hours later, Mr John was able to leave the hospital.

Dr Honnekeri said conscious off pump coronary artery surgery (awake heart surgery) is considered as the most evolved expertise as it was essential to have the perfect timing to work on a beating heart. It also reduces post-operative stay in the intensive care unit to less than 12 hours.

All is not glory as sometimes the patient agrees first to the awake surgery but chickens out at the last moment.

To remove the misconception of `empty pockets' after the surgery, the Wockhardt Hospital has also come up with a scheme where in the patient and one member of the family resides in Mumbai from the admission date to the discharge time, all at a price of Rs 1.6 lakh.

Usually the price ranges between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1.75 lakh, for the patient alone from admission to discharge, in Mumbai.

For people staying in Nagpur district, the charges would be lower by Rs 30,000, conducted at the Wockhardt Hospital in Nagpur, but without the expertise of Dr Sandeep Honnekeri.

Dr Honnekeri said that this surgery is not meant only for people with heart problems, but also for people who have ailments such as severe lung disease, liver disease, part history of stroke or unconsciousness as also high risk for general anaesthesia.

He added that about 15,000 by-pass surgeries were conducted in Maharashtra alone every year, which was a small number, as many patients do not want to go in for this due to `high costs'.

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