Bangalore : Every year thousands of people in India alone, require aortic valve surgery which can not only be expensive, but also require the use of an artificial valve, which  demand strict diet restrictions and life-long monthly blood tests.

But innovative technology is going to change all that. Recently, a 33-year-old welder, successfully underwent a new first-of-its-kind procedure called the Ozaki procedure. With this new technique, the person would get a valve, tailor-made for him, from his body’s own tissues, literally, at no additional cost, and would have the freedom to eat anything he wanted. He also could avoid the life-long monthly blood tests, and enjoy the same quality of life that people with more expensive and more fastidious valve prosthesis have.

“This special technique was introduced by Dr. Ozaki 15 years ago and has seen tremendous response in Japan and the world.  In a conventional valve replacement surgery, an artificialvalve, made of either metallic elements, or sourced from an animal like a cow or a pig is used.  In the Ozaki procedure, the valve is made up on the patient’s own pericardium, a sac surrounding the heart.  It takes 20 minutes to prepare the new valve from the tissues.  The entire surgery takes over four hours, half an hour more than conventional surgery”explained Dr. Adil Sadiq, Senior Consultant & Head – Adult Cardiac Surgery, Sakra World Hospital.

The aortic valve controls the flow of blood from the heart to the rest of the body. In the Ozaki aortic valve reconstruction procedure, after removing the diseased valve,   specialized equipment is used to make precise measurements of the heart. Then the patient’s own pericardium is used to fashion specific sized leaflets using specialized templates, and the leaflets are then sewn precisely into place, to reconstruct a new normally functioning valve.

The procedure is cost-effective as well. While a conventional valve replacement surgery costs Rs 4 lakh, including the equivalent artificial valve cost of Rs 2.5 lakh, the Ozaki procedure just costs around Rs 1.5 lakh.

Dr. Adil Sadiq, Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Sakra World Hospital, Bangalore, has been at the forefront of pioneering this technique in India, and his team leads the only centre in the country to be able to provide patients with this option. Initially conceptualized by Dr Ozaki, in Japan, this technique has found many takers, including the world famous Cleveland clinic, USA, and the Great Ormond street hospital, UK.