Nagpur to have infant heart surgery facility

Dr K G Deshpande Memorial Hospital in city, in its silver jubilee year, has started a full-fledged facility for neonatal (0-28 days) and

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infant (28 days to one year age) open heart surgeries. It has thus made Nagpur the sixth centre in country after Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Cochin to have such a facility. Until now all children in neonatal and infant age group with congenital (by birth) heart defects like blue baby, holes in heart, and other defects requiring surgeries were being sent to one of the six cities for treatment.

The hospital is also setting up the first hybrid cardiac heart surgery facility which is a combined set up of cath lab-cum-operation theatre. It will become functional by first week of December. The hospital is spending about Rs 6 crore for upgrading the hospital with an ultramodern OT based on latest concept. The hywhere the two procedures are done one after another. It can save both cost and time," he said.

Dr Sandeep Khanzode, a gold medal winning GMCH alumnus who did his M.CH from AIIMS, New Delhi, has returned to Nagpur after gaining expertise as a neonatal and infant paediatric surgeon from Narayan Hrudalaya, Bangalore. He

has performed over 500 surgeries individually and another 2,500 as part of a team in last six years.

He has joined the Deshpande hospital as a full time paediatric surgeon. “Paediatric surgeries above the age of 1-2 years were being done in city by doctors including Dr Deshapnde," Dr Khanzode said.

“Normally interventional procedures like tetralogy of fallot are done in a Cath lab. But when the doctor realises that the problem cannot be solved with this procedure alone and the patient needs an open heart surgery as well, the patient is usually called back after a few days or sent to a bigger hospital," Dr P K Deshpande, the senior most cardiac surgeon of the city who runs the Deshpande hospital.

"Even if the same hospital has a heart surgery facility the patient, especially if in critical condition, is

sent to the cardiac operation theater (OT). But this does affect the overall results and also adds to the cost.