Globe Health Tours News

Apr 10: In what could be considered as a remarkable achievement the US doctors have performed a simultaneous six-way kidney transplant. This operation was conducted at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. This idea for this kind of surgery originated when an unselfish donor who doesn’t have any blood relationship with the six patients found to match one of them. Five other patients had donors whose kidney mismatched with theirs. But it matched with another person in the group.

While commenting on this Dr Robert Montgomery, director of the transplant centre at the Johns Hopkins hospital said: “The reason for simultaneous operation is to avoid the back out of the donors after their loved one had a kidney. 12 people who underwent surgery are improving now. It is a team work and it gives good result. We want to spread the message about the possibility of this kind of group surgery and living organ donors.”

Around 100 medical practitioners were needed to complete the complex series of organ transplant surgery. If all plans went right each patient will live for at least 20 years with their new kidney. One among the six recipients Jeanne Heise whose husband donated to another patient said many people should know about this kind of procedure.

The huge shortage of kidney donors leads to the death of several people who are in need of new kidneys. This innovative procedure will help to identify new donors from outside the family.

Mar 24: India with its most modern medical facilities is considered as one of the top medical tourism destination in South Asia. Quality treatment in affordable price is the main reason behind the boom of medical tourism sector in India. To add more value to that the health ministry of India is planning to introduce Medical Parks all across the country. Medical parks provide perfect base for the manufactures of diagnostic equipments to set up their plants. This effort will help in reducing the manufacturing cost of diagnostic equipments and enables easy availability.

While commenting on this the Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said: “Medical parks will be set up all over the country and will be open for diagnostic equipment manufacturers. The first medical plant will be introduced in Chennai. About 75 to 80 percent of the manufactured products will be used in India. This is an attempt to bring down the price of the diagnostic equipment that is being imported now. The manufactures have assured that they will ensure that the price of the products will be kept low.”

While responding to the raising cost of healthcare the minister said that the pharmaceuticals and the medical treatment procedures are already very low when compared to other countries. In future we can expect it to reduce with the implementation of medical parks.”

A health insurance policy is also on the chart and it will help to reduce the problems associated with health spending. The National Health Mission will also be introduced within five months and it will take care of the health insurance needs of urban poor and slum dwellers.

Mar 14: As an attempt to strengthen the organ donation without any loopholes in it, Indian government is considering various options to codify the organ transplant procedure. The method of acquiring presumed consent by which the consent of the donor is enough to conduct the organ donation.

This initiative if implemented will help thousands of people who are suffering from organ failure and it also helps to minimise organ shortage. This move is also considered as an attempt to regain India’s image in the global medical tourism sector after it being tarnished by the recent multi-crore scam of the kidney transplant racket.

In a bid to understand various organ donation policies prevailing in other countried of the world a team of experts headed by R.K.Srivastava, the Direct General of Health Services (DGHS) made a visit to all the major countries.

“Most of the countries have adopted the presumed consent method but India and the US uses the expression of consent concept. In the presumed concept the person who is brain dead is considered to have agreed to donate the organs. In the second one family of the donor holds the right to give the consent. There is another model like the one in Iran, there the government has the power to control organ transplant, but that model has drawn flak from the experts.” Said the health minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

India is gaining significance as a global medical tourism hub and the free and fair policies will help a great deal in developing itself as a major player.

Feb 28: Plastic surgeries will try to enhance the personality of an individual to a great deal. Plastic surgery is gaining wide appreciation and the surge in the number of surgeries in recent years is the perfect example for this. It is estimated that about 11.7 million cosmetic procedures were carried out in the US in 2007.

There are pros and cons linked with plastic surgery and doctors suggest the patients to consider all that before preparing for a surgery. Based on the purpose plastic surgery is classified into several types and the cosmetic surgery is the most preferred one among them. According to a statistics 11 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in the year 2006 in US alone.

Women are more attracted towards cosmetic surgery and it is estimated as 91 percent. Cosmetic surgery among men has witnessed a 17 percent increase in 2007 as against 2006. While the number of surgeries in women has experienced only 1 percent increase during the same period.

The high priority cosmetic surgeries are listed as follows.

• Tummy Tuck or Abdominoplastry
• Reshaping eyelids, brow lift and forehead lift
• Breast reduction, Augmentation surgery, breast lift or Mastopexy and breast reconstruction.
• Buttock Augmentation
• Liposuction
• Injection of dermal fillers etc.

Before giving nod for a surgery it is better for the patients to gain knowledge about particular surgery. Getting a clear idea about the pre and post surgery care is also essential.

Feb 26: The traditional medical treatments such as ayurvedic and homeopathic are gaining importance in India as more advertisement and marketing techniques are promoting these medical practices. More and more patients prefer to get traditional treatments to get relief from chronic and lifestyle induced ailments.

While commenting on this Anoop Misra, Department of Diabetes and Metabolism, Fortis Group of Hospitals said: “Ayuveda is the most preferred traditional medical treatment and the demand is rapidly increasing in the last five years to more than 3,000 crores due to the effective marketing of their products supported by scientific proof of its capability to cure some diseases. At the same time these treatments are unable to handle emergency and cardiac treatments.”

According to a survey conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), out of 400 Indian CEOs surveyed as part of this survey, over 40 per cent of the CEOs prefer ayurvedic treatment to minimise stress like naturopathy, massage, acupuncture and acupressure. It also predicted that within 5-6 years the metros and towns will witness many ayurvedic centres that focus on treatment related to stress that is part of the fast paced lifestyle existing in the metros today.

Amrit Kalsi, Senior Medical officer of Delhi Government opined that in the past few years more and more people are choosing homeopathic and ayurvedic treatments instead of allopathic as a remedy to their chronic ailments like respiratory problems, skin diseases, fevers, viral infections, allergic disorders and asthma. This tendency is expected to increase in the coming years.”

This is a clear evidence of the growing appreciation of the traditional ayurvedic and homeopathy medicine in India along with most popular allopathy treatment.

Feb 23: As a proof to the increasing popularity of cosmetic surgery in the UK, a survey has revealed that about half of the adults are eager to undergo cosmetic surgery. Tummy tuck heads the priority list. Three among five mothers with young children are interested in tummy tuck and nearly half of them would like to have liposuction.

While commenting on this Alexandra Richmond, senior consumer analyst at Mintel said: “After giving birth to children women’s fitness level experience a terrible change and many of them are worried about their post-pregnancy figure. This is the main reason behind their desire to participate in cosmetic surgery.”

Considering both sexes two among five are eager in tummy tuck and 36 per cent would have liposuction. About 19 per cent of them are interested in breast enlargements.

“Those who expressed eagerness might not actually go through with it. But it is surprising that almost half the nation entertain the idea of cosmetic surgery. There is a changing mindset towards cosmetic surgery and they consider this as an effective way of improving their body shape without a long term commitment of dieting and regular exercise,” said Ms Richmond.

About £148 million was spent by the people last year for body reshaping operations including tummy tucks and liposuction. Between the years 2006 and 2007 the number of cosmetic surgeries has seen a steep increase of 29 per cent with 20,300 surgeries conducted last year as compared to 15, 800 conducted in the year 2006.

Feb 8: Cosmetic surgery is the brand new mantra of the people in Mumbai, the busiest metropolitan city in India. They are eager to mould up their personality by emulating the attractive physical features of celebrities including those of film stars and political and sports personalities.

They even dare to take personal loan to fulfil this purpose. This attitude is a clear indication of the growing prominence of cosmetic surgeries in India. Mumbai is considered as the city of dreams and its people’s desire to insert new glow to their personality adds merit to that belief.

According to Rahul Chauhan, Marketing executive aged 25, took personal loan to pay for liposuction, lip and nose fillers, “More clients are attracted by the personality of the executives. I can’t pay the full treatment cost in a stretch so I took loan,” he said.

Similarly researcher named Anshil. T aged 30 took personal loan for the fulfilment of hair transplant at a South Mumbai clinic. The quality of treatment offered using the latest equipments encourages more and more people to shape up their personal appearance.

There are many people who barrow money from private lenders and friends for paying for their cosmetic surgery. As the cosmetic surgery will not come under the purview of health insurance people are forced to take personal loan. The advancement of cosmetic surgery in India allows people to overcome the drawback in their personal look.

Feb.4: Owing to less treatment costs abroad along with other treatment allowances encourages the patients of United States to opt for medical treatment abroad. In United States the waiting time for surgery is reasonable and the Americans are offered incentives for travelling abroad for the purpose of getting medical treatment. According to the Census Bureau in the year 2006, 46.6 million Americans had no medical insurance. At least 120 million were without dental insurance this is considered as the main reason for more than 500,000 medical and dental vacations taken by the Americans last year.

Getting treatments abroad is benefiting those who cannot bear the expense of the medical treatments prevailing in US. People who don’t have insurance coverage or the insurance package cannot cover the whole expense of the treatment, those who are waiting for a long time to get the required treatment and those who are in need of long term medical treatment are those attracted by the treatment abroad.

In a nutshell the patients are getting affordable treatment by going abroad for their medical treatment. The estimated cost of the treatment in US and abroad will give a clear picture about the reason behind the patients desire to go abroad. For knee replacement surgery the cost in US is around $40,000 as against, $7,000; for hip replacement, $60,000 as against $8,500 and for rotator cuff surgery, $35,000 as against $5,000. The reasons mentioned above and the rapid growth of the medical sector in the countries like India, Thailand, UK, Singapore, Pakistan, France, Hungary and Norway are also encouraging more medical tourism from US.

Jan 25: Music in one form or the other remains as a delight right from the origin of mankind. It touches our mind and it has the ability to heal the wounds of our mind. A recent study has added more value to this belief as it shows that music therapy will help patients to overcome mental problems like depression and there by help them to improve, restore and maintain health.

According to a statistics about 121 million people world wide are suffering from depression. The indication of that can be seen in their changing attitudes like disturbed appetite, sleep patterns and overall functioning of the body and the inferior feeling of low self-esteem, worthlessness and guilt. These attitudes pave way for suicide and are linked with 1 million deaths a year. This gives a clear picture about the significance of this study.

Drugs and psychotherapy are the common treatment procedures adopted by the physicians. But a team of Cochrane Researchers decided to study about the impact of music on the behaviour pattern of this kind of patients. After undergoing a thorough study they found five researches that match their criteria from the international literature. Four of the study showed that there is reduction in the symptoms of depression among patients who underwent music therapy. The fifth study did not find this effect.

Anna Maratos, the lead author of the research and an art therapist who works in the central and Northwest London Foundation NHS Trust said: “The present study has shed light on to the fact that the music therapy could improve the mood of the patient. While the evidence came from few small studies and it is the area that have wider scope for further study. The detailed study into this topic will give a clear idea about the form of music that is effective for this purpose.”

A deep understanding of the extent of impact of music on healing psychological problems will help the therapist to handle this effectively for the treatment of patients. GHT

Jan 24: In what could be considered as a path breaking eye surgery a hospital in South India has performed intraocular lens (IOL) transplant surgery using tissue glue on a four year old girl. This is the first attempt of its kind in the world. Fibrin glue is normally used to protect the oozing of blood in delicate surgeries such as urological or plastic surgeries and it is also used in ophthalmic surgeries, it is a substance made from blood plasma.

Dr Amar Agarwal an eminent eye surgeon of India performed this Glue Assisted Sutureless IOL implantation said: “It is for the first time we used this technology in intraocular surgeries. A month after the surgery we found the lens was not staying in one place as it normally should, it was moving here and there. Then we decided to use glue to fix the lens and it proved to be successful. The whole procedure took 30 minutes to get complete.”

Earlier the girl Anandhi’s lens gets damaged while bursting crackers. In the surgery plastic lens is surgically fixed to replace the damaged natural lens. According to Agarwal the main advantage of using glue technique is that the lens remains fixed where it is implanted on the other hand sutures provide mixed results and they are biodegradable and there are possibilities of other complications.

Dr Agarwal further added that: “Treatment of damaged IOL pose challenge for ophthalmologists. In many cases nothing could be done about the problem. Now with the help of this technique we can remove the problems raised due to the missing of intraocular lens capsule and the glue also enhances the vision.”

The operation was conducted free of cost considering the poor background of the girl. This operation is an eye opener for patients suffering from this kind of ailment.