The provision of more critical care services and addition of super specialty departments and beds have led to the increase in number of major and minor surgeries in the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, say officials. More than a century after it was commissioned, the hospital opened its cardiology department and began performing open heart surgeries in mid-2017. In early 2018, it performed vascular surgeries and complicated gastroenterology surgeries.The last two years has seen CMCH ramp up its cardiology facilities. “We started upgrading the department in mid-2017, and began acquiring facilities like more operation theatre, full-fledged cardio thoracic surgeons, cath labs and equipment to do angiograms and angioplasties,” dean of the hospital Dr B Ashokan said.“We started performing open heart surgeries, like bypass surgeries in mid-2017. As of December 2018, we have performed 83 open heart surgeries or major surgeries,” he said. “Averaging five a month,” he added.The vascular surgery department started in 2018 performed 18 major surgeries last year. “This includes treatment for varicose veins, creating A-V fistula surgeries for patients requiring hemodialysis , treatment for artherosclerosis or narrowing of arteries due to plaque buildup along artery walls,” said the dean. The surgical gastroenterology department which used to mainly handle appendicitis, hysterectomy among other simple surgeries, has now begun operating all pancreatic tumours, performing laparascopic surgeries, liver surgeries and complicated appendicitis surgeries,” he added.While three major surgeries were performed in surgical gastroenterology in March 2017, the number rose to 26 in March 2018.Besides this, there is a spike in surgeries performed across departments like neurology , plastic surgery, orthopedics and ENT. In orthopedics, the number of major surgeries performed in 2018 was 1,700 more than the previous year, head of the department Dr Vetrivelchezhian said. “Every month if you compare, we have performed 130 to 200 surgeries more than last year,” he said.

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