Surpass bypass ops at Jayadeva hospitals

Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences does the largest number of angioplasties in India. While they did 14,000 angioplasties in 2019, they did 1,400 bypass surgeries in the same period.

Dr C N Manjunath, Director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, said, “Even if patient has three-vessel blockage or multiple blockages, the culprit vessel that is causing the heart attack will first be stented in an emergency. This is the reason why number of angoplasties have gone up.”

If one gives only clot-dissolving medicine, the death rate is 10% to 12%. If one does angioplasty and stenting then the mortality rate is reduced to almost three percent. So today the procedure of choice for heart attack patients irrespective of number of vessels blockage is angioplasty and stenting, Manjunath added.

“Technology has also changed. A lot of complex heart procedures that were done through surgeries earlier can be done using angioplasty because of the refinement in hardware we use and various tools that have been developed,” he said.

Earlier for example, calcified arteries were not being stented, patients were directly sent to surgery. Now, a debulking device can be used to insert a stent. “The growth of angioplasty, I agree is faster than bypass,” he said.

For BPL patients, it is free up to two stents and sometimes three. In general ward, the cost of the procedure is Rs 50,000 plus cost of the stent which is Rs 30,000. In special ward, it is Rs 60,000 plus cost of stent, and in deluxe ward it is Rs 70,000 plus cost of stent.

A bypass surgery at Jayadeva costs Rs 95,000 in a general ward and Rs 1.75 lakh in a deluxe ward.

But price control or not, angioplasty procedure cost around Rs 2.50 lakh in some private hospitals.