Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) on behalf of Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and Israel Innovation Authority (IIA), on behalf of Government of Israel, granted HealthNet Global, a part of the Apollo Hospitals Group, India and Zebra Medical Vision, Israel funding to validate, co-develop and deploy medical imaging Artificial Intelligence (AI) across India and to increase Tuberculosis (TB) screening capabilities in the rural areas. HealthNet Global (HNG), a part of the Apollo Hospitals Group, India and Zebra Medical Vision (Zebra-Med), one of the global leaders in AI Imaging software, Israel announced a new collaboration that will focus on validating and deploying AI based tools at scale across India. The companies shall jointly receive support from India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) for their $4.9 Million project to co-develop and to provide clinical validation, and evidence of the efficacy of radiology Al based tools in India as per I4F norms. The final developed project will be able to assist as a primary screening method for major diseases in large scale screenings. For example, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 3.6 million people with TB are missed by health systems every year and do not receive adequate care. This is primarily because patients with TB may present with mild or no symptoms, particularly early on. Many affected people arrive at clinics too late with advanced disease or multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), which is difficult to treat and more likely to cause death. One of the key strategies to tackling TB is early diagnosis. Unfortunately, sputum testing is only 50% accurate and frequently misses the disease in its early stages. Both companies will focus on development of AI-based Chest X-ray interpretation tool for TB which can help address the gap. Speaking of the initiative, Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals said “When it comes to health, the promise of AI to provide access and improve outcomes in very intriguing. There is a critical need to provide good healthcare access in remote and rural communities, and we believe this initiative will allow us the opportunity to make significant advances in this area. Apollo’s clinical and scientific depth and Zebra-Med’s expertise in AI complement each other perfectly. This project is part of our continuing endeavour to design new tools to improve healthcare access and deliver best outcomes to patients at lower cost.” In addition to leveraging clinical depth and breadth of the Apollo Hospitals network, HNG will work in close collaboration with Apollo Radiology International, a distinguished part of Apollo Hospitals, to bring in leadership, experience and technology in Radiology reporting to the project. The partnership will capitalize on the advancements already achieved by Zebra-med in developing dozens of AI tools. The arsenal of algorithms will include deep learning algorithms for the detection of acute conditions such as brain bleeds in head CTs and Pneumothorax in chest X-ray, detection of breast cancer in mammograms, Osteoporosis in CT scans and 40 other conditions. “We are excited to partner with the leading healthcare services provider in India and to help bring AI to India at such a scale,” noted Eyal Gura, Co-founder and CEO of Zebra-Med. “When we met the Indian team for the first time few years ago we found common ground and similar dream of scaling healthcare from millions to billions of patients. We are honored that the two governments have placed their trust in us and we are committed to utilize this opportunity to impact millions of lives.” The grant will aid the partners to focus on development of India specific algorithms tool which would be of immense benefit to patients across India and other emerging nations. The project will also modify existing algorithms to make them suitable for the Indian population. The final product will assist provide high quality radiology access to remote locations by alerting the presence of critical findings immediately. This will help provide timely, cost-effective, quality care to patients in remote and rural locations. “This is an exciting time for AI in medicine,” said Vikram Thaploo, CEO of HNG. “As these systems increase in accuracy, so will the viability of using AI to extend the reach of Chest X-Ray interpretation, improve reporting efficiency and save lives. We believe in the impact that technology can have in helping provide timely, cost-effective, quality care to patients in remote locations and our partnership with Zebra-Med is a step in this journey.” “We believe that this project will be a very important milestone in the introduction of AI in Indian healthcare. We are excited to provide clinical leadership and expertise to this initiative”, said Dr. Sreenivasa Raju Kalidindi, CEO and Medical Director of Apollo Radiology International.  

The Apollo Hospital Group announced the formal release of a postal stamp on Preventive Healthcare by Shri Banwarilal Purohit, Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu. The commemorative stamp honours and acknowledges the Chairman of Apollo Hospitals; Dr. Prathap C Reddy’s pioneering efforts in encouraging preventive healthcare in India. Shri R Anand, Postmaster General, Chennai City, Ms. Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson Apollo Hospitals and Ms. Suneeta Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals attended the special occasion at the Raj Bhavan, Chennai Over thirty-five years ago, in 1983, Dr. Prathap C Reddy had established Apollo Hospitals, India’s first corporate hospital to make advanced medical care accessible to all in the nation. Since then, Apollo Hospitals’ pioneered innumerable initiatives in healthcare management and amongst them, one was the launch of the ‘Master Health Check’, which introduced a culture of preventive healthcare into India. Cognizant of the intrinsic value of good health, Dr. Reddy has been empowering and encouraging fellow Indians to live healthy and screen regularly to diagnose disease early, particularly vital to conquer cancer. Speaking on the occasion, the Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu, Shri Banwarilal Purohit said, “Dr. Reddy and Apollo are synonymous with Healthcare excellence in the world. They excel in end to end healthcare of consumers from 140 plus countries and have many firsts including the recent launch of South East Asia’s first ever Proton Cancer Care Therapy centre. Preventive Care was first pioneered in India by Dr Prathap Reddy and today I am happy to commend his dedication to Disease Prevention through this special stamp.” Ms. Preetha Reddy, Vice Chairperson of Apollo Hospitals said “Our Chairman, Dr. Prathap C Reddy’s dream is to do all that is needed to ensure that everyone has good health and happiness. His life’s objective has been to not just make advanced medical care accessible to patients, but also, to prevent the onset of disease. Apollo’s Preventive Healthcare initiatives have been working tirelessly for almost four decades to ensure that his dream is realised. We take pride in having touched 20 million lives through our preventive healthcare endeavours. It is a very significant moment for the entire Apollo family, as a special preventive healthcare commemorative stamp is being released, in recognition of our efforts”. Shri Alok Ojha, Senior Superintendent of Post Offices, congratulated Dr. Prathap C Reddy, Founder and Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group & his team for successful completion of 20 million health checks & delivering excellence in health services for past 36 years. Such commendable services have set a world record in Preventive Health Checks.

On February 15, 2019, Apollo Hospitals Group has offered free treatment to the injured troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who survived the terror blast in Pulwama district’s Awantipora town, Kashmir on February 14, 2019. “We offer to treat the CRPF troopers injured in the terror attack till recovery and rehabilitation at any of our hospitals across the country,” said Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, Founder and Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group. Grieving the loss of 45 brave troopers, Dr. Prathap C. Reddy hailed the martyrs who laid their lives for the country and offered condolence to their bereaved families. “We salute the families of the victims who gave the country such brave sons of the soil and for their supreme sacrifice,” added Dr. Prathap C. Reddy.

A team of experts at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi successfully blessed Mrs. Jane Gumbo, aged 42 with a new lease of life. Mrs. Gumbo is from Tanzania and duly serves the nation as a Police officer. She weighed 123 kgs and was suffering from deep vein thrombosis, clot in heart and pulmonary embolism. She had a big ball like clot in her heart which was in the ventricle almost at the verge of blocking the pulmonary artery (the main artery which goes from heart to the lung) and lungs were studded with blood clots. Considering her critical condition and very poor chances of survival, surgeons turned her down for surgery as it was very high risk for open heart surgery. But a team comprising of Dr. (Prof.) N N Khanna- Senior Consultant, Interventional Cardiologist &Endovascular Specialist, Dr Suranjit Chatterjee- Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine and Dr. Nalin Nag- Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals successfully saved her through a novel technique and an incision free procedure. Explaining about the disease the patient was suffering from Dr. (Prof.) N N Khanna said, “When the patient came to our hospital, she had severe breathlessness and was in cardiogenic shock and had very low oxygen concentration in the blood. Post investigation, we found that she had large blood clots in both legs, a big clot in the right ventricle and both lungs. Considering the criticality of her situation, surgeons refused to operate on her as the mortality rate is high during surgery.” Talking about the procedure performed Dr. Khanna said, “Firstly, the Femoral Vein was punctured to implant the filter in Inferior Vena cava for preventing the movement of clots from legs to heart and lungs. Later, clot-busting drug called Tissue Plasminogen Activator (TPA) was given by catheters placed directly on the clots to open the blocked lung arteries and to carefully dissolve the clot in the heart under supervision. The procedure continued for 96 hours patiently and meticulously with continuous monitoring of the status of lysis of the clots by imaging and measuring serum fibrinogen levels of the blood to avoid the risk of major bleeding. Eventually, the clots in the heart and lungs got dissolved.” “This was a highly critical and potentially dangerous procedure. The clot in the heart was of the size of a table tennis ball and if it had moved towards the pulmonary artery it would have blocked the outflow of the heart like a ball valve suddenly and completely and she would have died in less than a minute. Despite being a critical procedure, the patient was not given even a single incision and the entire procedure was through a key hole endovascular technique and post procedure, she recovered in less than 24 hours. She is doing fine now and requires no further treatment except for oral medicines,” Dr. Khanna said further. Mrs. Jane Gumbo, the patient after the surgery said, “I am really thankful to Dr. Khanna and his team here at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. It is only because of them that today I am living a new life. I was in a very bad situation. I was not even able to breathe properly but doctors here treated me even when others surgeons had refused to operate on me. Dr. Khanna explained me all the risks associated with the procedure. Seeing his confidence and belief, I underwent the procedure. For me, he is no less than a god who has given me a new life.”

Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata has launched a dedicated Department of Comprehensive Hernia surgery. The department will address treatment of all kinds of hernias from the simple to the extreme, complex ones through the most modern surgical techniques. Hernia is basically a gap in the muscles and fascia of the abdominal wall through which the inner contents, small and/or large intestine, stomach, bladder etc, may protrude out from the abdomen, below the skin. Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata is the first ever hospital in India to have a dedicated department for comprehensive hernia treatment. The pioneering concept ensures a more specialized approach towards treating hernias. State-of-the-art facilities and advanced equipments assist the team of expert surgeons to tackle the most critical hernias. There are several types of hernias broadly divided into internal and external hernias. Internal hernias are not apparent on the outside and can be dangerous while external ones are the more common ones and are of several types. Following are the external hernias – Inguinal hernia, Femoral hernia, Incisional hernia, Umbilical hernia, Epigastric hernia, Lumbar hernia, Spigelian hernia, Paraesophageal and Diaphragmatic hernia, Parastomal hernias and Diastasis of recti. Common symptoms of hernia: Swelling in the groin or abdominal wall which increases on prolonged standing, coughing, sneezing or even a good laugh! Pinching or dull aching pain in the swelling. Constant pulling sensation inside the abdomen. Constipation. Backache due to poor posture. Hernias may lead to obesity and the reverse is also true. Surgery is the only way out to treat a hernia. In current times, laparo-endoscopic approaches have mitigated the fear involved with open surgery such as long cuts, prolonged and severe pain, delayed recovery, loss of work and wages. Using mesh is the gold standard followed worldwide to reduce the chances of recurrence. Many patients have difficult hernias that defy conventional surgical solutions. The department would serve as a tertiary referral centre for all such cases. At Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, the latest hernia surgeries include minimal hospital stay and low pain scores. The patients are generally able to walk and eat within 4 hours of surgery and go home the next morning. Speaking on the occasion, Dr B Ramana, Senior Consultant Laparoscopic and Hernia Surgeon, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals Kolkata, said, “We try to ensure speedy recovery of the patient so much so that s/he can get back to normal life almost immediately after the surgery. These modern laparoscopic surgery techniques lead to reduced post-operative pain, minimal blood loss and single day hospital stays in most cases. The department would offer the entire gamut of modern AWR procedures comprising of open, minimally invasive and robotic approaches. The most advanced surgery techniques include eTEP, TAR, SCOLA, BOTOX, PPP etc.” Incisional hernias occur to 20-30% patients who undergo any kind of open abdominal surgery. This is specially seen in women after pregnancy and C section. These hernias are typically difficult to cure using traditional surgeries and with more number of attempts to cure the hernia the complications increase along with increased failure rate. Hence the need for specialized hernia treatment using new techniques comes in picture. Women after pregnancy even have flabby abdomen due to the abdominal muscle losing its tenacity while giving space for the growth of the uterus. This goes mostly unaddressed till the belly becomes very saggy, or the patient feels low back pain. Using the modern SCOLA method, the shape and tone of the abdominal muscles may be regained, with the scars being barely visible. The modern hernia treatments at the Department of Comprehensive Hernia Surgery would include: e-TEP : the most advanced surgical approach for inguinal, incisional, umbilical, epigastric and lumbar hernias in the world. One can walk and eat within 4 hours of surgery and go home the next morning. TAR – complex hernias, hernias with loss of domain and multiply recurrent hernias may need this complex surgery known as Transversus abdominis release. This may be an open or endoscopic approach depending upon individual case. SCOLA – subcutaneous onlay laparoscopic approach is a minimally invasive approach for small umbilical hernia or epigastric hernia with diastasis of recti or diastasis of recti alone. BOTOX – Hernia with loss of domain may need temporary paralysis of abdominal muscles for complete reduction of hernia contents. PPP – Preoperative progressive pneumoperitoneum is also an adjunct used in modern day hernia surgery in cases of loss of domain hernia. Groin pain – pain in the groin could be related to problems of hips, spine, muscle and most importantly an occult/hidden hernia. Mesh related complications.

It’s never an easy task to walk again on your own when you have a fall at the age of 98 and fractured your hip. The lower body is immobile and the patient needs to be cared for long. Doctors say that the chance of success for patients undergoing surgery like Hip Replacement at that age is minimal. When no alternatives are available and pain relief is to be provided immediately, Hip Replacement surgery is the best alternative, to relieve a painful hip joint. Mrs. Lakshmamma, a nonagenarian, who had a fall resulting in hip fracture, underwent a successful Hip Replacement surgery and has been walking on her own now. Dr. Vasudev Prabhu, Senior Orthopedic Surgeon, and his team of doctors from Apollo Hospital, Sheshadripuram at Bangalore have accomplished a Hip Replacement for Lakshmamma who has recovered well post-surgery. A resident of Sira Taluk, Tumkur District, Lakshmamma fell at her home and sustained injury to her left hip in March 2018. When asked about the need and the procedure required, Dr Prabhu informed that the patient had already undergone a Hip Surgery on the right hip earlier, 10 years back. The fall in March 2018 had resulted in the left Hip, needing a replacement instead of the plate and screw, due to age related problems. The patient was immobile and had difficulty even to get a bedpan. Necessary precautions were taken, Doctors at the Apollo Hospitals headed by Dr. Vasudev Prabhu and team suggested patient to undergo the surgery for which the family agreed in full confidence. What made this surgery challenging was the risks involved. At that age risk factors included osteoporotic bones, Sub optimal lungs and cardiac status and high chances of pulmonary embolism due to immobilization. All the efforts paid off when the patient starting to walk the next day of surgery with the help of support staff. Dr. Anitha, granddaughter of Lakshmamma, informed that within eight hours after consultation with the Dr. Vasudev Prabhu, the patient was ready for the surgery the next day. The patient was anemic and blood had to be transfused to perform the aforesaid procedure. The confidence instilled in the patient, the will to stand on her own legs did it for the patient , and a day after, she was able to walk with the support of medical staff at Apollo Hospitals, Sheshadripuram at Bangalore. Availability of specialists like Cardiologists, Pulmonologists, Geriatric care team within the hospital and necessary equipment and availability of ICU facilities was the key to the success quotes Dr. Anitha. Within 12 days, the patient was mobilized to Tumkur where she now lives a healthy life. Dr. Anita and the patient’s family is full of raise and respect for the team of Doctors especially to Dr. Vasudev Prabhu and team, the medical care team that provided excellent post-operative care. The patient is walking towards completing her 100 years and the team of doctors wish her a healthy long life.

Mr. Anutosh Mishra now aged 53-year-old suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis, a form of arthritis that primarily affects the spine. Mr. Anutosh, a bank employee was suffering from severe back pain and stiffness in both his hips because of which he couldn’t walk for the last 15 years. In order to treat this condition, Dr. Havind Tandon, Senior Consultant, Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement and his team operated him with both side hip replacement surgeries at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals on 1st January 2019. Explaining about the disease, Dr. Havind Tandon said, “Ankylosing Spondylitis is chronic inflammation of the spine and Pelvis. Severe inflammation causes pain and stiffness. It causes deformity and joint destruction that lead to loss of mobility. The onset of the diseases usually starts in the second or third decade of life.” “In this case, the patient was suffering from back pain and had stiffness in both the hips. He was not even able to walk properly since last 15 years and had to depend on others for his day-to-day activities. Mr Anutosh Mishra had lost hope, as many efforts to get treatment had been turned down elsewhere. Post the necessary medical investigations, we decided to perform bilateral hip replacement surgery and replaced both his fused hips with artificial hips. Two days after the surgery i.e. on 3rd January the patient started to walk. As the spine is fused in this condition, it leads to various chest problems also. Surgeries of this kind have very high complication rates and thus, they require a multi-disciplinary medical intervention,” further added Dr. Tandon. After the successful surgery, Mr. Anutosh Mishra, at the time of discharge on 6th January 2019 said, “I was in terrible pain and always had to depend on others even for my day-to-day basic chores. I am thankful to Dr. Havind Tandon because of whom I am able to walk properly today and perform my daily routine activities all by myself. It feels like, I have got my life back again. All thanks to the doctors here at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.” Further Dr. Tandon said, “Ankylosing spondylitis is majorly a genetic disease, but is rapidly becoming prevalent due to high adoption rate of sedentary lifestyle, abuse of alcohol and tobacco within the population. Young age -onset of this disease leads to many young people in their 20s and 30s facing its debilitating symptoms. Incorrect use of steroid worsens the condition. There are many complications associated with this disease such as uveitis (eye inflammation), heart problems, chest problems, compression fractures, etc. The earlier this disease is diagnosed, the easier it becomes to manage its progression with exercise, medicines and various other therapies. In severe cases, such as this one, surgical intervention becomes necessary.” indraprastha-apollo-hospitals-delhi-successfully-performed-bilateral-hip-replacement

Hearing loss impacts one throughout life. While people with mild to moderate amount of hearing loss can cope with this disability with the help of hearing aids, the ones who suffer from severe to profound hearing loss require cochlear implants to deal with the deafness. If the hearing loss is not treated early enough, the children born with hearing loss will not develop normal speech and language. Diagnosed at birth with severe hearing loss in both his ears, the baby is a resident of Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi. His parents bought him to Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in an effort to find a treatment to restore his hearing. At the hospital, his case was referred to Dr. (Prof) Ameet Kishore, and then assessed by the audiologists at the Speech & Hearing clinic (which supports the Apollo Cochlear Implant programme). He was initially fitted with hearing aids to ascertain the level of benefit, as per international protocol. The team eventually confirmed that the child would not get normal hearing with hearing aids, and the family was counselled for cochlear implants. Even though his young age of eight months presented a huge challenge, the doctors with the consent of parents decided to go ahead with the surgery. Dr. (Prof) Ameet Kishore, Senior Consultant, ENT & Cochlear Implant Surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi said, “When dealing with hearing loss in children of such a young age, the most important part is to restore the hearing of the child as early as possible. In the child’s case the treatment of choice for good hearing restoration was cochlear implant, and on top of that, it was important to restore hearing in both his ears (bilateral simultaneous cochlear implant), which means that implantation was done in both ears at the same time. It requires extensive surgical expertise and efficiency to safely handle an eight months old baby, weighing just 10 kg, which is why many people would hesitate to do this surgery. With our experience of close to 1000 cochlear implants, this was not a concern as we have operated on many babies safely and efficiently.” The baby’s parents decided to outfit him with the latest cochlear implant Nucleus 7 (N7) devices, making him the youngest patient in the country to get bilateral simultaneous cochlear implant using the N7 device. “This has also been verified by Cochlear Corporation Company. He is probably one of the youngest children to have bilateral simultaneous cochlear implant in the country, and certainly one of the youngest in Apollo’s bilateral cochlear implant programme.” added Dr. Kishore. Dr. Kishore further highlights, “Nucleus 7 (N7) devices are the most recent cochlear implant devices in the world right now. N7 implants have a better chip and connectivity with digital devices. So such improvement in the quality of hardware and software further enhances the quality in sound that the patient gets, making it extremely good and clear. Getting the latest and most sophisticated cochlear implant will help the baby to do very well in the future.” “The implantation surgery went well without any complications,” said Dr. Kishore, “Post the surgery, N7 devices have been switched on by the audiologists at SpHear Clinic where he is also receiving the much needed hearing and speech therapy.” The baby has settled well with the cochlear implants, is attending the clinic for rehabilitation twice a week and doing very well so far, Ms. Neevita Narayan, Audiology Director & Cochlear Implant Specialist at SpHear Clinic added.

A 42-year-old man who got his right hand crushed by a machine that bends iron, has regained the use of his fingers after six months of battling pain, regret and the prospect of permanent disability. The initial prognosis was that the damaged hand might have to be amputated. However, doctors at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata saved his hand by successfully performing a complicated surgery. Mr. Hirak Kumar Das had been standing in for a worker in his hairpin manufacturing unit at Belghoria, when he admittedly took the risk of hurrying through a task he wasn’t adept at. “A World Cup round-of-16 match involving my favourite team, Belgium, was to start in a few minutes and I was in a hurry to finish whatever I was doing. I should have been focused on the work at hand, more so because I wasn’t used to handling this machine. The accident happened because of my fault,” he recounted during his follow-up visit. Hirak’s index finger got severed from near the base. His thumb was severely damaged and the middle finger had a deep gash. Hirak’s right hand was a bloodied lump of flesh when some of his workers took him to a private hospital nearby. He was shifted to Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, where doctors did a surgical procedure that involved using two abdominal flaps to preserve the thumb and the index finger. “The fingers remained in the flaps for 44 days, by which time lost tissue was regenerated. There was a problem with blood circulation to the fingers at first and he needed another surgery to fix that. The healing process started after the second surgery,” said Dr. Srinjoy Saha, Plastic Surgeon who carried out the twin surgeries. Six months later, the patient could write with his repaired hand. He is chuffed that his bank signature has been successfully verified. Plastic surgeon, Dr. Saha stressed the importance of concentration when handling even the simplest of factory equipment. “The injury suffered by the factory owner could have been far worse,” he said. With physiotherapy, patient was able to pinch with his forefinger and thumb and also hold a glass.

In a rare surgery, doctors at a Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata extracted a tooth from the nasal cavity of a 29-year-old Kolkata man, who works in UAE. Mr. Obaidullah Ahsan had been suffering from cold, discharge from nose and headache for years. He started having intense pain a few months ago after the problem got aggravated. After he flew down to Kolkata last week for medical help, doctors found that a full-grown tooth in his nasal cavity was the trigger behind the problem. The tooth was finally extracted on November 19 and Ahsan flew back to his workplace in UAE. Ahsan said that “I had consulted many doctors. Every time, they suggested that there was problem in the sinus and advised medication. But nothing eased my pain, headache and discomfort,” On reaching Kolkata, he consulted doctors at the ENT unit of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, where Dr. Shantanu Panja suggested a CT scan. The report detected a whitish mass and sinus infection in the nasal cavity. On extracting the mass through an endoscopic surgery on November 19, Panja found that it actually was a fully-grown tooth rooted in the nasal cavity. “We had no inkling that the calcified mass could actually be a tooth because a CT scan cannot detect the same. It is an extremely rare case. The tooth was like an obstruction in the nasal cavity, triggering pain, discomfort in the nose and head and discharge from the nose,” said the ENT and Head and Neck Onco-Surgeon. Doctors said that an extra tooth can show up mostly in the upper jawbone. But a tooth growing inside the nasal cavity is very rare and doctors are yet to find out the exact reason behind this. Ahsan had been suffering from the problem since his childhood. “Of late, the pain, headache and the fluid discharge from my nose had pinned me down. It had become difficult to concentrate on work. After the surgery, I feel relieved for the first time in many years,” Ahsan said. Patient got discharged two days after surgery and post follow-up visit flew back to his workplace in UAE.

A first-of-its-kind in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, Neuro Navigation system was inaugurated by City Mayor Ms. Sunkara Pavani at Apollo Hospitals, Kakinada. The Mayor complimented Apollo Hospitals’ management for equipping the hospital with the most advanced computer aided navigation system, which helps in conducting brain tumor removals and spinal surgeries with more accurate and minimally invasive techniques. Rural MLA Ms. Pilli Anantha Lakshmi Satyanarayana Murty, inaugurated the new Neuro operation theatre. Dr. Chatterjee, Medical Superintendent, said that Apollo Hospitals management was always in the forefront in equipping the hospital with advanced technological systems for extending better medical care to the patients. Dr M V Kiran Kumar, Chief – Neuro Surgery said “Neuro navigation will help in achieving optimal accuracy, minimal incision, lower trauma and quicker recovery of patients.” He further added that the patients after brain tumour surgery can be discharged almost the next day. Chief Administrator of Apollo Hospitals, Kakinada Mr. Ramana mentioned “The Navigation technology aids the surgeons at every point to stay aligned with the surgical goals in a highly complex anatomical field.” He also said that the equipment is a boon to patients.

Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata saved a 74-year-old man’s life by removing a tumour from the windpipe. The tumour was in the thyroid gland and had penetrated to the windpipe, if left untreated the tumour would have grown in size and blocked the entire airway. It was a challenge for the doctors to operate on the windpipe but our competent doctors at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata performed the tricky surgery which involved removing a portion of the windpipe and reconstructing it, after removal of tumour. Mr. Ranjit Kar, a resident of Sunderbans and a retired government employee, had been coughing blood for almost one year. He was initially wrongly diagnosed and treated for tuberculosis. He was bogged down by the bloodied cough even after completing the six-month course of tuberculosis, as suggested by a local doctor. Later, he underwent CT Scan and MRI which revealed a large tumour in his thyroid gland that had encroached into the windpipe. The tumour was bleeding, which in turn caused the blood in the cough. Despite the risk, Dr Nipun Saha operated upon the patient at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata on November 21. The Onco-Surgeon took out the portion of the windpipe measuring about 3.5cm that had the tumour. Once it was removed, the windpipe was reconstructed. A tumour from the thyroid gland was also removed. The surgery lasted for six and a half hours. “The surgery was tricky because we had to operate on the windpipe, which is the tube through which patients are intubated for ventilation support during major surgeries. Even as cancer in the thyroid gland is common, the tumour encroaching into the windpipe is quite rare,” said Dr Saha. Bypassing the normal intubation route through the mouth, Dr. Saha created a hole in the windpipe below the tumour, though which the endo-tracheal tube was inserted. Patient recuperated well after the surgery and was discharged.