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Cath Lab set up at General Hospital

Rajesh Nair

PUDUCHERRY: After introducing kidney transplantation at the General Hospital here, the Health Department is now looking to set up a full-fledged cardio thoracic unit to undertake bypass surgeries.

As a first step in augmenting the GH’s cardiology department, a state of the art cardiac catheterisation lab would open by the this month-end.

“We have been doing diagnostic tests like angiogram on a trial basis at the lab from June 27. The results have been satisfactory,” Health Minister E. Valsaraj told The Hindu.

By next year, the hospital would have a cardio thoracic unit and an operation theatre to conduct bypass surgeries.

The services of leading thoracic surgeons based in Chennai would be enlisted, he said.

The Cath Lab, set up at a cost of about Rs.5 crore, would help poor patients not only from Puducherry but also from Tamil Nadu. For all these years, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) was the only hospital that could perform interventional treatment for cardiac ailments in Puducherry and in the neighbouring districts of Tamil Nadu, according to Dr. A. Sankaran, head of the cardiology department at the General Hospital.

The GH’s cardiology department gets about 300 patients on an average every day at its outpatient and special clinics.

About 40 to 50 per cent of patients needed interventional treatment to correct heart ailments, Dr. Sankaran said.

The Cath Lab facilitates diagnosis and treatment of serious heart ailments. The lab also facilitates pacemaker implantation, according to Dr. A. Manimaranae, cardiologist.

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