Narayana Health launches dedicated Cardiac rehabilitation centre at M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre

~Sheds light on post-transplant rehab with heart transplant recipients~

Bengaluru, January 06, 2017: A dedicated state-of-the-art Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre was launched today at M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre at Mattikere in Bengaluru. Later in the day, Heart Transplant recipients shared their experiences to shed light on the importance of post-transplant cardiac rehabilitation. The centre will help cardiac patients post surgery, especially those who have undergone heart transplant to return to an active life and prevent recurrence of cardiac events. The centre will assist in improving the health and well-being of patients through exercise training, education on heart healthy lifestyle, and counseling on diet and to reduce stress. The centre was inaugurated by Dr. M R Jayaram, Chairman, Gokula Education Foundation in the presence of Dr. Devi Shetty, Chairman – Narayana Health.

Cardiac rehabilitation is an emerging comprehensive medical intervention aimed at reducing cardiac risks. It is not just limited to patients after a heart surgery, but also for those who suffered a heart failure as well as patients diagnosed for risk of heart attack. The cardiac rehab team designs customized programs to meet patient needs based on their medical history. Apart from improving the quality of life and overall reduction in heart risk, the program lowers psychological stress, reduces the number of recurrent heart attacks, heart failure admission and even sudden death.

Dr. Nagamalesh U M, Senior Consultant Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiologist, M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre, said, “One of the primary causes for the reoccurrence of a cardiac ailment is imbalance in the autonomic nervous system of the patient. Apart from treatment it calls for a focused corrective programme to reduce the risk of a repeat occurrence. While there is some amount of correction methodology applied during the admission, post surgery the patients are not monitored. And this very realization has forced us to set-up a dedicated centre focused on rehabilitation. The centre will work with patients on primarily 3 things: Exercise, change in lifestyle and reduction of stress even after the medical intervention.”

Elaborating on patient benefits of cardiac rehabilitation programmes Dr. Nagamalesh said, “Cardiac Rehab helps patients to rebuild their life with confidence – both physically and emotionally. The rehab program helps post transplant patients to regain their physical health and get back to an active lifestyle”.

M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre performed 8 heart transplants during the previous year and many of those recipients were present on the occasion. Some of them travelled long distances – from Kunigal, Tumkur, Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh) and Chikkaballapur to participate in the launch of Cardiac Rehab Program at M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart Centre. The youngest of them was a 24 year old Software Engineer and the oldest being a retired personnel aged 65 with a new lease of life.

Heart transplant is a treatment modality administered for patients suffering from Dilated Cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease with scarred tissue from a heart attack or birth defects. To go ahead with the transplant the patient will need to be of less than 70 years of age. The preferred donor’s age is ideally below 40 with a healthy heart and no other medical complications.

Though far from desirable, there has been a significant increase in the number of people coming forward for organ donation. In fact, in Bangalore the number of organ transplants has increased over the years, which is encouraging. However constant campaigns reasserting the need for people to come forward for organ donation will be required to save those suffering with life threatening ailments.

M S Ramaiah Narayana Heart centre is one of the leading centres of excellence for cardiac care in the city. The centre offers comprehensive heart care from angioplasty, pacemaker implantation, by-pass surgery, valvular surgery to complex procedures like beating heart surgery, in the last one year the centre has done 8 successful heart transplants.

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)