Health Care at Home Launches Post Surgical Care Service

To ease the lives of patients and their family members in case of a surgery,Health Care at Home (HCAH), India’s first hi-tech, documented, quality homecare service provider, has launched Post Surgical Care services in the city.

After a surgery, the post care is very essential as the patient becomes very frail and vulnerable to catch infections, sometimes complicating their condition. At hospitals, the chances of acquiring infections are higher due to the presence of several patients with varied health problems and the bugs there not being friendly ones as against those in the settings of one’s home.

“Recovery at home is far speedier if it happens in the comfortable confines of home, given the services provided are on a par with hospital. Recognizing its need and the hassles that patients have to bear when a family member is at hospital post a surgery, we planned to launch our post surgery care. Treating patients post surgery not only requires medical expertise but also demands an extremely sensitive approach on the part of the treatment providers. This is what we exactly do by bringing professional healthcare services to patients’ doorsteps, so that they do not have to go through the cumbersome routine of hospital stay and visits after a surgery,” said Vivek Srivastava, Chief Executive Officer, HCAH.

Under its Post Surgical Care offering, HCAH provides multiple services like post-operative dressing, stitch removal and drain care, intravenous antibiotic therapy, vital signs monitoring, pain management and diet monitoring and nutritional counseling. Besides, HCAH also offers counseling to patients and their family members, as it is very important to boost the morale of the person who undergoes a surgery, given they feel low and weak, finding the recovery process difficult. Family members are told about the ways in which a patient should to be taken care of.

“We have specialized nurses who are skilled to deal with patients post a surgery, be it of any kind. They are trained in pain relief management, stitch removal and overall patient care. They very well understand the needs of patients and their family members, supporting them throughout the recovery process. The care provided by us matches the quality of any renowned hospital and so the patients are in safe hands. Patients recover faster when they are at home and around their family members. It gives a fillip to their confidence level to be back in shape quickly,” said Dr Gaurav Thukral, Head Medical Services, HCAH.

Homecare post surgical care service also helps the doctors of the patients to constantly monitor their patients’ condition. By keeping their doctors concerned always in the loop, HCAH ensures constant medical intervention and supervision to the patient without any interruption. The doctors have complete control over the treatment of the patients. HCAH provides extended reach to the patients’ doctors in conditions where the patients find it difficult to travel to the hospital. “Additionally, services provided by the company also free up doctors at the hospitals, making them available for other critical patients,” said Abhishek Malik, Unit Head, HCAH, Jaipur.

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Rare Bone Replacement Surgery Cures Uzbek Man of Unusual Cancer

Having undergone three failed surgeries to treat multiple point recurrent cancer of the leg bone in Uzbekistan, 24 year old SobidjOn Juraev had all but given up hope of ever returning to a normal life. The resurrection of the cancer despite several rounds of treatment also posed the serious threat of a leg amputation or worse a disarticulation of the hip. This is when the young man and his family decided to travel to India to seek medical help.

It is in New Delhi that the young Uzbek man got much needed medical succor. In a rare and difficult surgery that lasted 8 hours, Dr Rajeev K Sharma, Senior Consultant, Orthopedics & Joint Replacement Surgeon along with his team including Dr. V.P Singh, Cancer Surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, removed the entire cancer-affected bone right from the hip to the knee, replacing it with an artificial Total Femoral Replacement implant.

The difficult surgery which was a combination of Hip & Knee Replacement has successfully cured the patient of cancer, eliminating the risk of a permanent disability. A failure to get rid of the cancer affected bone would have lead to two eventualities: either a disarticulation of the hip (surgical removal of the entire lower limb at the hip level) or an amputation of the leg to save the life of the man. However, both these situations would have resulted in permanent disability.

A successful surgery that not only rid the man of cancer, but also gave him a new hip and knee joint, has given a fresh lease of the life to him.

Sobidjon had tumor (bone malignancy) at multiple points on the bone between the knee and hip. He first underwent a total hip replacement in June 2011, which failed. The same was followed up by two more surgeries in his home country, which temporarily kept the cancer at bay but failed to have the desired result. Sobidjon Juraev found it difficult to walk and lead a normal life. The risk of recurrent cancer also posed a threat of permanent disability for the young man.

After struggling with the ailment for four years, the family decided to travel to India to seek better medical treatment and cure for the debilitating disease.

“We examined the patient thoroughly and discovered that the cancer in the Right femur bone had recurred. Now, it was at three points in the right femur bone between the hip and the knee, necessitating an amputation which would have been a life-long disability for a young man,” said Dr Rajeev K Sharma, Senior Consultant, Orthopedics & Joint Replacement Surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi.

“Total Femoral Replacement in this case was a very difficult and rare surgery as it was a kind of a combination of hip replacement, knee replacement and thigh bone replacement. To be able to get rid of the cancer completely, we needed to remove the entire stretch of thigh bone from the right hip to the right knee and reconstruct the same artificially. It was a challenging surgery as it involved the removal of whole thigh bone at the same time. The challenges included threat of post-surgical infection, knee and hip instability and damage to the nerves and vessels of the area. However, in an 8-hour procedure we successfully removed the full cancerous thigh bone and replaced it with an artificial Total Femoral Implant,” added Dr Sharma.

In such cases, the surgery is followed by a prolonged process of rehabilitation and physiotherapy which helps the patient regain the limb’s lost strength, strengthen the muscles and get back on feet.

The patient is responding well to the surgery and hopes to get back to his normal youthful life soon after four tumultuous years. India will always remain a positive memory in his life as it gave him a fresh hope of survival.

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Leading Cardiac Electrophysiologist Dr. T. S. Kler Conducts Breakthrough Procedure

First Time in India, Pacemaker via His Bundle Pacing: Leading Cardiac Electrophysiologist Dr. T. S. Kler Conducts Breakthrough Procedure
The procedure, that imitates the physiological pacing of the heart, is an improvement over traditional pacemaker implantation

The procedure marks a breakthrough not just in India, but also the SAARC region

New Delhi, Nov 27, 2014: In a major breakthrough in the field of Cardiac Electrophysiology in India, leading cardiologists at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute & Research Centre have performed the country’s first pacemaker implant via His Bundle pacing, a technique that saves more lives in the longer run as against the traditional implant procedure.

A team led by Dr T S Kler, HOD Cardiology and Director, Electrophysiology at Fortis Escorts Institute & Research Centre, performed the new procedure on two patients ,a 75-year-old man and another 63 years man ,who needed a pacemaker implant.

It is the first time that cardiologists in India have performed this procedure. In fact, this is the first time this technique has been executed anywhere in the SAARC region.

A human heart needs a pacemaker when heart rate drops to abnormally low lavels either because of inability of natural pulse generater center ( sinus node ) or when there is electrical block of impulse when it travels from right upper chamber to right lower chamber usually at the AV node or below that. An artificial pacemaker replaces the heart’s original electrical impulse generating system with an alternate power generator.

In traditional pacemaker implant, the lead of the pacemaker (or its wires) is attached to the right ventricle apex, a point located at the bottom of the lower right chamber of the heart. The electrical input then travels all the way from this lowest point in the heart upwards towards the base. Normal impulse travels from base of heart to its apex. So in apical pacing electrical impulse travels just the opposite to natural way. A section of people (About 10 to 15 % ) who undergo pacemaker implant through this traditional mode suffer from heart failure due to decrease in pumping capacity of heart caused by right ventricle apical pacing.

The new technology involving pacing through His Bundle pacing cuts this risk of future heart failure to almost zero % . In this breakthrough technique, which is performed by very few doctors across the world, the pacemaker lead is put on directly on the His bundle, which is the junction between the upper and lower chambers of the heart. This replicates the physiological functioning of the heart as the heart’s natural electrical impulses travel in normal human heart.

“In normal heart functioning, the electricity generated in the upper right chamber of the heart travels to the A-V node (atrioventricular node) & His bundle ,which is the bridge between the upper and lower chambers of the heart. This impulse then divides and travels to the left ventricle and the right ventricle. So, naturally speaking, AV Node & His bundle is the point that acts as a natural conductor of electricity from upper chambers to lower chambers of heart. When the AV node is blocked due to a malfunction, the electricity supply interrupts and this necessitates an artificial pacemaker,” says Dr Kler.

“In traditional pacemaker pacing, which is the norm across the world, there is a long-term risk of patients suffering from heart failure. In fact, 10 to 15 % people in traditional pacing do tend to suffer from heart failures in the longer run. The alternate His Bundle pacing is the physiological way of pacing and therefore cuts this risk,” adds Dr Kler.

After conducting the first such two procedures, the doctors are now preparing for a third His Bundle pacing procedure.

Right ventricular apical pacing – as the traditional method is called – is not an ideal procedure for permanent pacing because of a risk for ventricular function deterioration, mitral valve dysfunction, or proarrhythmic effects. His Bundle pacing provides a safer and better technique of providing electricity to lower chambers of heart. But only problem is it is technically more demanding and takes little extra time for the procedure. The cost of this pacemaker is almost the same as previous available devices

Honored with PADMA BHUSHAN by president of india , Dr Kler is pioneer in cardiac electrophysiology in India . He was the one to implant first ICD (device to prevent sudden cardiac death) in 1995 and then heart failure device (CRT-P) and COMBO device (CRT-D)In India.

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