Heart disease can immensely impact your mental and physical health.

And the success rate of heart surgeries play a crucial role in mitigating this impact.

Are you someone who needs a heart surgery and wondering how successful it would be? Care to know about the heart surgery success rate in India?

You’re not alone, as on average, around 300,000 surgeries are performed per year in India, with approximately 20% of them being open surgeries, and everybody wants to know whether these surgeries have been successful.

In this blog, Karetrip discusses the success rates of heart surgeries in India, the complimenting factors leading to the high success rates in cardiac surgeries and various types of cardiac surgeries and their success rates.

Heart Surgery in India

Heart surgery, also known as ‘cardiac surgery’, can be any surgery related to the heart or the blood vessels leading to it. They are considered crucial surgeries with life-saving effects on the patients.

The survival rate is 92.4% in one year and 82.9% in five years.

Heart surgeries improve the overall quality in one’s life by contributing to both physical and mental health.

Challenges and Opportunities

According to the available data, there are about 420 cardiac centres in the country performing cardiac surgery. But it is not enough to meet the total demand of cardiac surgeries in the country.

The number of cardiac procedures performed is estimated to be around 300,000 per year, which is a huge number, but the challenge of providing equal and sufficient medical care is still at a high.

SWOT Analysis

A clear and accurate analysis is needed to improve and maintain the success and sustainability in any field.

SWOT Analysis helps us understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of cardiac surgery in India.

Strengths

Highly Skilled Surgeons: India boasts of large numbers of experienced cardiac surgeons.

• Advanced Medical Infrastructure: There are many top hospitals in India equipped with advanced medical infrastructure.

• Cost-Effective Treatment: Treatments are cheaper in India than in western countries.**

• High Success Rates: Success rates are considerably high in India.

• Growing Medical Tourism: Cost effectiveness is attracting many medical tourists to India.

Weaknesses

• Healthcare Accessibility: Medical care accessibility in rural areas is not well developed.

• Overburdened Public Hospitals: Government hospitals are often under-resourced and overcrowded.

• Variable Quality: Disparity in quality of medical support between top tiers of hospitals from local medical facilities.

• Insurance Coverage: Limited insurance coverage for certain cardiac surgeries restrict access for some groups of people

Opportunities

• Technological Advancement: Adoption of robotic surgery and minimally invasive techniques are assets to the modern medical field. They can reduce the surgeon's burden and reduce the postoperative sufferings of the patient. Telemanipulative instrumentation, and transcatheter mitral valve implantation with robotic devices are examples.

• Telemedicine Expansion: It helps to do proper follow ups to reduce post surgical health issues. Government Initiation: The initiative like ‘hridayam’ initiated by governments help patients from relief funds.

• Research and Development: Increased investment in R&D promises better and more efficient treatment opportunities.

• Global Collaboration: Global collaboration helps in exchanging ideas. It also helps in learning and growing from others' challenges and mistakes.

Threats

• Rising demands: The rates of cardiovascular diseases are fluctuating and increasing. They have increased 2 to 3 fold in the last 10 years. The modern lifestyle is one of the main causes. Diet, alcohol consumption, unhealthy eating habits and the work environment all can be factors leading to this.

• Economic Factors: The unequal distribution of money among people can affect the affordability of the medical benefits.

• Competition: Other countries are competing to grab India's potential global medical tourists.

Success Rates of Heart Surgery in India

The success rate in India is comparable to the success rates of other well-developed countries.

• Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG): These surgeries are done to restore the blood to the blood vessels which are not receiving enough blood. They help expand or unclog the narrowed blood vessels in the coronary artery. The success rate is between 95% to 98%.

• Heart Valve Replacement / Repair: The defected valve is repaired using a ring to support the damaged valve or is entirely replaced by artificial valve.Transcatheter procedures are also used to treat heart valve conditions. The surgery success rates fall between the range of 90% and 95%.

• Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery: With less scarring and better recovery minimally invasive heart surgery can benefit in reducing the complexity of the surgery to both surgeon and the patient. They are considered very safe with around 98% to 99.99% success rates.

• Angioplasty and Stent Placement: Angioplasty is a standard procedure for treating fatty acids and cholesterol deposits on walls of arteries causing blocks in the blood flow. Their primary success rate is between 95% to 98%.

• Pediatric Heart Surgery: Some kids are born with heart conditions called congenital heart conditions while others contract them after birth. India has increased heart surgery success rates due to the minimally invasive surgeries. These ranges from 86% to 92%.

Kindly note that the success rates depend on several factors including the expertise of the doctor, age, history of other diseases and several other factors.

The success rates vary from hospitals and upon the severity of condition.

Hospitalisation and Surgery Procedures

Let us familiarise ourselves with the hospitalisation and surgical procedures when planning heart surgery in India.

• Preoperative Evaluation: Patients have to undergo strict preoperative evaluations including imaging scans, diagnostic tests and consultation with the surgeon for planning of surgery and to avoid unexpected complications during surgery.

• Hospital Stay: Depending on the type and difficulty of surgery, the duration of hospital stay can vary. During the hospital stay, the patient would be under surveillance to ensure proper vitals and stable health conditions before surgery.

• Surgery and Recovery: Heart surgeries are performed in operation rooms under strict medical requirements. The recovery will be under intensive care units with stable and sterilised conditions. Rehabilitation and Follow-ups: Strict rehabilitation and follow-ups are required to ensure ideal health conditions after surgery.

• Cost of hospitalisation: It is important for the patient to make sure to get an outline of the expenses regarding hospital stay and other procedures.

• Insurance: Some insurance providers do not have insurance coverage on heart surgery costs without referral. Make sure to discuss with your insurance provider about the policies regarding the same before hospitalisation.

India is a leading destination for heart surgeries. Our country is also emerging as a hot global tourism centre due to the expert doctors and cheaper healthcare.

The success rate of heart surgeries in India is comparable to those of any other country.

The investment in research and development, the doctors changing preferences for non traditional surgeries all contribute to the improvements in the cardiac surgeries of the country.

The information provided represents the views and opinions of Karetrip. It is crucial to conduct your own independent research before making any decisions regarding your healthcare journey. - Disclaimer