Last year, the Durdans Heart Centre celebrated its 20th year as a Medical Centre of Excellence in Sri Lanka. Over recent years, the centre has maintained its pioneering status by continuously enabling the achievement of a multitude of cardiac care breakthroughs within the country.
As Mr Ajith E Tudawe, Chairman of Durdans Hospital explains: “from the beginning, the idea was to have world-class cardiac care right here in Sri Lanka”. To achieve this vision, Durdans Hospital established strategic alliances with local and international institutions, facilitated intensive nurse training programmes, and utilised advanced technology to reach gold standards at an international level. Dr Kesava Dev, Durdans’ resident cardiothoracic surgeon, describes the centre as having “the experience, technology and equipment to handle the entire spectrum of cardiac surgeries.”
Ultra-modern, advanced facilities have allowed the Durdans Heart Centre to undertake high-risk cases with an increased chance of success. In 2015, an advanced cardiac and angiography system was installed with the Advanced Ultrasound Philips EPIQ 7. A year later, in 2016, minimally invasive instruments for CABG and valve surgery was introduced followed by the introduction of South Asia’s most advanced image-guided system, the Philips Azurion, to facilitate high-precision cardiac interventions.
Since then, the centre has achieved key milestones in Sri Lanka’s healthcare history: Last year the centre became the first in the country to successfully complete a minimally invasive Transcatheter Arterial Valve Implantation (TAVI) procedure on a patient under local anaesthetic with no complications, and the first in the country to perform a ‘re-do’ Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass (MIDCAB) surgery on a patient who had cardiac surgery over 18 years ago.
Today, the Hospital’s dedicated cardiac rhythm management team also uses cutting edge technology to diagnose and treat a variety of heart arrhythmia-related conditions. Patients with life-threatening conditions that cause irregular heartbeat, like Ventricular Tachycardia (which results in a more rapid heartrate) can have specialised pacemakers called Cardioverter-Defibrillators (ICD) implanted at the centre that monitors heartrate and detects abnormalities to deliver precisely calibrated electrical shocks to achieve a normal heart rhythm.
Keeping up its position as the pioneer of the field in the country from 1998, The Durdans Heart Centre embarks on the new decade with a sustained effort to undertake ever-more complex cases with confidence. The hospitals comprehensive heart-care team continues to ensure the delivery of services that prioritise patient comfort and safety.
