Finding Affordable Heart Surgery in India

The heart is the most vital organ in the human body, because it ensures that each and every organ of our body is supplied by blood. This blood circulates around the body in the veins and makes sure that all the waste products made due to daily activities are eliminated and each and every cell of our body is provided with fresh oxygen and nutrients from the blood. Hence, the health of the heart should never be neglected and all necessary steps should be taken that the heart performs efficiently throughout our lives.

But, in spite of our best efforts, many people nowadays suffer from various sort of heart diseases. In India, the epidemic of heart attacks is on the rise, and many factors are to blame for this. Not only can this be blamed on the unhealthy eating, drinking and smoking habits, which clogs the arteries and builds up fat around the heart, severe mental pressure is also a leading cause for heart diseases. In today’s fast paced lifestyle, everyone is under constant mental stress, be it for studies or work related deadline or financial troubles, and this has led to a significant rise in the number of heart diseases in people, especially those under 30 years of age, who were less likely to face such problems even a few years back.

The entire spectrum of heart diseases is called cardiovascular diseases and they may be of several types like Peripheral artery or coronary artery diseases depending on which region of the artery system it affects, and also rheumatic, valvular and congenital diseases of the heart.

All these types of heart diseases require different types of medical attention and care, and most of them require surgical procedures when the threat becomes too severe for the survival of the patient. The most common types of heart surgery in India are discussed below.

1) Angioplasty – When white blood corpuscles get accumulated in the narrow hollow region of arteries and veins, they can severely obstruct the normal flow of blood throughout the body and result in clogging of the veins and arteries and form blood clots. Angioplasty is a surgical method performed to release these clots, where a collapsed balloon called a balloon catheter is inserted into the blood vessel and then inflated, which forces the blocked narrow opening to open and starts the flow of blood. The balloon is then removed, and sometimes a stent may be added to provide structural support to the blood vessel.

2) Heart Valve Replacement – The heart contains sets of valves which direct the flow of blood in the right direction into the proper chambers and organs. Sometimes, these valves may fail, causing insufficient flow of blood, and these valves then would need to be replaced, with either an artificial valve or a bioprosthesis, which is an alternative valve made from biological tissue.

3) Heart Transplant – This is the most complicated heart surgery of all, where a severely injured or damaged heart which is beyond repair is replaced by the healthy heart of a donor, which may be a patient who has been declared brain dead. It is very complicated and requires exceptional skill.