The Apollo Heart and Lung Transplant Institute at Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills is in collaboration with Montefiore Medical Center, New York. Both these medical giants hosting, India’s first exclusive Conference on Lung transplantation. The two day Congress will be on Management of Advanced Lung Diseases and Lung Transplantation. The conference will be held on the 4th and 5th of May at HICC Novotel in Hyderabad. The Conference is endorsed by the Indian Chest Society, South zone.
Lung disease a Challenge
At Apollo Hospitals on Friday, Dr. A.G.K. Gokhale, Dr. Harish Seethamraju, and Dr. Hari Prasad, said lung related ailments pose a challenge for treatment. Later, in detail these doctors, representing Apollo and Montefiore health care discussed further. They told Clinicians have limited treatment options and patients are exhausted of their resources. Lung transplantation is increasingly becoming the preferred option of treatment. There are nearly 50000 patients in India, who are likely to be benefited by lung transplantation because it’s done by experienced teams.
In advanced lung diseases like chronic obstructive lung disease and interstitial lung disease, both lungs are destroyed. And they do not effectively transfer oxygen into the blood. Often patient becomes bedridden and cannot perform any activities and become dependent on others.
Lung Transplantation
The prevalence of interstitial lung disease is up to 97.9 per 100000 annually. 17% of these may not be benefited by any treatment and may require Lung transplantation. There are 30 million chronic obstructive lung disease patients in India. As it is a progressive disease, the end stage patients will benefit from Lung transplantation. COPD is the leading cause for lung transplantation throughout the world. Similarly Primary pulmonary hypertension is a condition in which pressures in lung blood vessels increase. This is a very common problem in India. It is the under diagnosed, under treated, under estimated, silent killer.
Patients with Primary pulmonary hypertension can benefit from optimization of medication and Lung transplantation.
Dr Gokhale on Lung Transplant
Dr Gokhale of Apollo said, “The incidence of lung disease is on the rise in India. There are thousands of patients awaiting care, but they don’t have effective treatment options in India. The Patients with chronic lung conditions, tend to have poor quality of life and majority of them are home bound. And with home oxygen Lung transplantation currently being the preferred treatment option for a variety of these end stage Lung diseases. Remarkable progress has taken place worldwide in the field of Lung transplantation, which is the option for all such patients. However we lag behind in replicating the success rates on par with them.
This conference will be focusing on how to improve the quality of life of such patients and they live longer. Over 50000 patients in the country are desperately waiting for Lung transplantation. Since the program of Lung transplantation has not really taken off in India, these patients continue to suffer. Kidney and liver transplant programs are doing well, even heart transplant has picked up in the country. But we lag behind the world in the lung transplant area. Generally the rate of success in lung transplant is low in comparison to other transplants. The conference will focus on who are suitable for lung transplant in particular. And what are the advances in transplantation care. How to handle post operative and several related aspects will be discussed at the conference. The Lung specialists in India will be educated and trained in the lung transplant area”. Dr Gokhale added.
Dr Hari Prasad on Lung Disease
Dr Hari Prasad also from Apollo said, “these two-days are extremely important for specialists taking care of lung diseases. There is a significant disease burden of lungs, off late due to smoking and pollution. Unlike other diseases there isn’t enough awareness about lung diseases. Furthermore, there is not enough infrastructure to take care of these patients. This conference is to bridge that gap. The first lung transplant in India was done way back in 1990. And despite it’s being simpler than the other transplants, be it liver, heart etc., it is most critical. In lung transplant there’s to know how the patient care is rendered pre and post transplant.
Across the world, post survival of lung transplant patients is the lowest than in India. To improve upon the outcomes and to prolong survival, we need to gain more exposure to the entire care cycle. In India, Apollo hospital has the largest solid organ transplant program with outcome comparable to the best in the world. Even, the largest number of lung transplants are done by Apollo Hospitals in India. Most lung transplant patients survive at the most for two years, our goal is to ensure a longer life. It will be better for the patient to go back to the community and lead a normal life”.
Dr adds other Transplants
“In the country around 7500 kidney transplants are done every year. However, around 2.2 lakh patients wait for a kidney transplant at any point of time. About 1000 liver transplants are done every year but there are a lakh of patients waiting for it. We do 500 heart transplants but there are a 50000 people waiting for it. India does 200 lung transplants, Apollo does the largest of these, still there are 50000 waiting for a lung transplant. Every year 5 lakh people die off for want of organ transplant, in the country.
The reason for more number of kidney and liver transplants is because they can be taken from a living related donor, but for heart and lung we need a brain dead person to donate. But the surprising element is that while we are doing 500 heart transplants, which means 500 cadavers are donating, But less than half of it are lung transplants, it means all remaining lungs are being wasted and the reason for this wastage is not having a robust program. Taking in care of these lungs and transplanted in deserving individuals should be initiated”.
Says about the objective
“Our objective is to bridge this gap. We have an exclusive Lung Transplant Team at Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills, headed by renowned Cardiothoracic Surgeon. The Padmasree awardee surgeon, Dr. Alla Gopalakrishna Gokhale is the best doctor available. Our team consists of a dedicated transplant pulmonologist Dr. Chaitanya Battu. Anaesthetists, Intensivists, infectious disease physicians, and a well established lung rehabilitation program brings up the team. The Hospital will be establishing a Multi disciplinary advanced lung failure and Lung transplantation clinic. Which will be in association with Montefiore Medical Center, New York to bring Global standards to Hyderabad”, he adds.
Dr Harish Seethamraju on Lung Transplant
Dr. Harish Seethamraju says, “taking care of the patient before, during and after lung transplant, involves lot of challenges. And that needs certain aspects which are unique to lung transplant to be emphasized on. This conference will help in developing a comprehensive program of international standards to successfully do lung transplants. And be able to keep them alive for a long period of time, on par with the care in the best centers in the world.
The Conference will lay thrust on current aspects of managing advanced lung diseases and various aspects of Lung transplantations. Besides two workshops conducted by international faculty on ECMO there was also Right Heart Catheterisation. Some highlight topics to be focused at the Conference are:
- New lung preservation techniques
- Optimization of donor lung
- Induction chemotherapy
- Advances in surgical technique
- Changing trends of anesthesia
- Improved out comes in view of better post op immunosupression
The Conference will have over 250 delegates from all over the country and 60 faculty members including 6 international faculty, attending. The speakers are eminent chest clinicians, transplant pulmonologists and surgeons. Intensivists, transplant anesthesiologists, Rheumatologists, Cardiologists, and Radiologists etc from USA and India. The Conference is aimed at pulmonologists involved in managing advanced lung diseases. And to enhance their skills and to provide an insight into various aspects of lung transplantation. And to include when to advice patients about it”.
Khalid M Raza
