Skill and experience can help find ways to treat a disease when the costs are prohibitive.
V.V. Bashi, director of the Institute for Cardiac and Advanced Aortic Disorders at SIMS, Vadapalani, has come up with an alternative for the frozen elephant trunk hybrid graft procedure for aortic aneurysm.
An aortic aneurysm is a swelling in the aorta, the vessel that carries blood from the heart to the body.
Though surgery for aneurysms is fairly common in India, complex procedures are limited to certain centres.
Developed countries offer frozen elephant trunk (FET) graft procedure. The graft, costing ₹15 lakh, must be imported from the U.S, Europe or Australia. To replicate the success rates found abroad, hospitals need to establish hybrid operation theatres that are also prohibitively expensive.
Modified procedure
Dr. Bashi has come up with a modified procedure, in which instead of an FET, two grafts are used — one for the aortic arch and another for the descending aorta.
The procedure has been offered to 25 patients, all of whom are now leading normal lives, the surgeon said. It also cut the cost by almost more than half.