Cardiothoracic department at ICH ready for inaugural
Upgraded at an outlay of Rs 25 crore, the department would ease surgical procedures to perform complex heart surgeries on newborns.
Chennai: The newly upgraded cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology department at Institute of Child Health is finally set for inauguration. Upgraded at an outlay of Rs 25 crore, the department would ease surgical procedures to perform complex heart surgeries on newborns.
The department is the main centre for the treatment of cardiac problems in
paediatrics and the new facilities at the department would provide state of the art facilities to the hospital for the same.
Cardiothoracic issues including cardiac emergencies in children can be coronary artery diseases, aortic valve or mitral valve disease, atrial and ventricular septal defects or blockages.
Such diseases can be treated by operating on organs inside the chest and in the bony structures and tissues that form the chest cavity.
“More than 200 cases of cardiac complexities have been born or are brought to the hospital that requires higher precision to diagnose and treat defects in heart and remain pending. Older children can be operated in normal theatres but newborns need to be supervised in modular theatres with advanced
equipment and therefore, this centre was a necessity,” said director of Institute of Child Health, Dr A.T. Arasar Seeralar.
Congenital heart surgeons perform surgery for newborns with holes between the heart chambers or abnormal connections within the heart.
Therefore, advanced infrastructure set up is needed, say medicos. The modular theatre will be equipped with a cath lab and a 12-bed intensive care unit.
The equipment costing Rs 18 crore has also been set up to support the lab and ICU. Cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists, cath lab technicians, anaesthesiologists and others will be deployed at the new centre.
“Cardiothoracic surgeons perform than more than one or two open heart and close heart surgeries in a day, as each surgery lasts at least five to seven hours.
The new facilities would enable the medicos to take up more surgeries in a single day and perform them faster and efficiently,” said Dr Arasar.