Only few PG seats in Vascular Surgery in India

Updated on: Tuesday, August 10, 2010

If only more number of vascular surgeons were in India, over 80,000 patients limbs could be saved each year.

Numerous casesheets of patients whose legs have been amputated lying on the table of vascular surgeon Dr N Sekar of Apollo Hospital reveal this alarming statistics.

As a surgeon trained to perform surgery on blood vessels, he knows that at least 80% of these people could have walked, if specialists like him had attended to them. But, that cannot happen until there are adequate specialists like him in the country.

Since the establishment of first department of vascular surgery in 1978, India has less than 100 vascular surgeons. Saddest part is that states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Manipur do not have any vascular surgeons at all.

No government-run hospital in New Delhi including the premiere All India Institute of Medical Sciences has a department of vascular surgery. With 20 surgeons each, Chennai and Bangalore are slightly better off.

Only last year, the number of seats for post-graduate degree in vascular surgery in the country was raised from four to eight in medical colleges. Including diploma holders, the country produces only 16 vascular surgeons yearly. This, experts feel, should be trebled in two years.

"A large number of people wheeled in for amputations are either trauma victims or long-term diabetics. At least 40% of people with decade-long diabetes develop vascular problems. In a country where more than four crore people are estimated to have diabetes, the number of people estimated to have vascular problems is large. Add to this road accident victims day and you know why there is a need to produce a greater number of vascular surgeons," says Dr Sekar, who is also the president of the Vascular Society of India.

Although there are no clear statistics on amputations, it is estimated that at least one lakh people lose a limb every year. Among these, nearly, 80,000 amputations are avoidable.

The Vascular Society of India is now on a full-fledged war with the Union health ministry and at least ten state governments urging them to start new departments in vascular surgery and increase the number of seats for post-graduate degree in vascular surgery.

"At present, there are only seven training centers for vascular surgery, training 12 students every year. We want them to double the number of seats in a year and increase it by at least three times by 2012," Dr Sekar said.

Only few PG seats in Vascular Surgery in India

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