Lucknow: King George’s Medical University gets nod for first heart transplant – ET HealthWorld

Lucknow: After getting the license from the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET), King George’s Medical University (KGMU) is all set to conduct the first heart transplant.

The process of creating a registry of patients suitable for a heart transplant has been started and now the university is waiting for a cadaveric donor. KGMU is the second public institution in the state after Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Science to get the license to start heart transplant (HT) services.

KGMU vice chancellor, Lt Gen (Retd) Professor Bipin Puri said that (DMET) gave the university the licence to conduct heart transplants for five years after reviewing existing staff and facilities at the department of cardiac surgery. The permission will be renewed following a review after five years, he added.

The transplant at KGMU will cost around Rs 1-2 lakh, which is much cheaper than private hospitals where the procedure is done at Rs 10-15 lakh. Head, cardiac surgery, Prof SK Singh, said, “Since HT procedure is similar to open heart surgery, which we have already been doing for long, we have all the facilities, including expertise, trained manpower and equipment to do a transplant.”

Heart failure is a progressive condition in which heart muscles are unable to pump enough blood to meet the needs of the body. Heart transplant is done when all other available treatments do not work,” he added.

“We already have patients who require HT. We are keeping records of blood groups and heart size of the patients in the registry. As soon as a donor is available, we will conduct a test to match blood group and heart size and, if matched, a team will be sent for organ retrieval and it will be transplanted to the patient within four hours,” he said.