Dr. Suresh Rao

AREA(S) OF INTEREST:

Neonatal & Infant Heart Surgery, Complex Congenital Heart Corrections, Valve Repairs in children, Repairs through Limited Posterior Thoracotomies and Ministernotomies. Newer Techniques of cardiopulmonary Bypass for Congenital Heart Corrections

PROCEDURES PERFORMED:

Simple and Complex Arterial Switch Operations, Repair of Hypoplastic & Interrupted arches, AP Window, Common AV Canals, Shunts, Obstructed Total Anomalous Pulmonary veins, Redo after Arterial switch, Norwood Operation, Ross & Ross Konno Operations etc; Complex Congenital Heart Corrections: Complex Intraventricular Tunneling, Nikaidoh Root tranlocations, Konno, Ross Operations, Fontan, ALCAPA corrections, Potts Shunts for PAH and Redo repairs; Valve Repairs in children, Repairs through Limited Posterior Thoracotomies and Ministernotomies.

TREATMENTS/PROCEDURES OFFERED:

Complete repertoire of Surgical Corrections for Congenital Heart Defects and Acquired Heart Valve Lesions from Newborns to Adults

NAME OF INSTITUTE(S):

• Grant Medical College & JJ Group of Hospitals, Mumbai (MBBS & MS Gen. Surg)
• Sree Chitra Institute of Science & Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala (MCh-CVTS)
• Madras Medical Mission Hospital Chennai (Registrar, JC and Consultant Pediatric  Cardiac Surgery)
• Green Lane Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand (Registrar/ Cardiothoracic Surgery)
• Children’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia ( Sr. Registrar, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery)
• University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA ( Fellow, Congenital Heart Surgery)

FELLOWSHIPS:

• Special Congenital Heart Surgery Fellow: University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA

• Recipient of endowment scholarship during MBBS and MS from Grant
• Medical College and University of Bombay.  (July 1973 thru 1981)
• Outstanding performance award at the Second MBBS Examination, June 1975
• Placed Second in University of Bombay at the MS (Gen.Surg) Exam, October 1981
• Placed first at the MCh (CVTS) exam from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute, December 1987
• Award for the Best Scientific Paper Titled, ‘Expanded Role of Peritoneal Dialysis in Pediatric Cardiac ICU’, Southern Zone Regional Conference of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, Kollam, Kerala, India.
• Vocational Excellence Award, from The Rotary Club of Cochin North, January 2002.
• K.G. Deshpande Memorial Orator at the Cardiological Society of India (Vidharbha Chapter) Meeting, Nagpur: September 25, 2005.
• C.S. Sadasivan Orator in Cardiac Surgery at the 52nd Annual Conference of Indian Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons, Bangalore, February 24, 2006
• Paul Harris Fellow: Rotary International. May 2006
• 14th Manibhai Patel Orator at the Annual Meeting of the Indian Medical Association, Vadodara Branch, Gujarat, June 24th, 2012
• 10th Nitu Mandke Memorial Orator, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai, January 20th, 2013
• Vocational Excellence Award 2012 – 2013, for Contribution to Child Health Care from The Rotary Club of Bombay Seaface, March 16, 2013
• ” Appreciation Award”  from District Governor of Rotary District  3140 for the “Touching Little Hearts Program”
• Vocational Excellence Awards from Rotary Club of Bombay Sea Coast
• Vocational Excellence and District Governor’s Citation for the Rotary “Congenital Heart Surgical Program” - “Touching Little Hearts, of Rotary District 3141.
• “Nitu Mandke”Orator, at the 97th National Conference of the IMA, December 26/27, 2017, Mumbai, India
• “Prof. Raj Tandon Orator”, at the 19th Annual Conference of the Pediatric Cardiac Society of India, September 14th, 2018, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

Recognitions

• President, Pediatric Cardiac Society of India: 2009 – 2011
• Senior Vice-President, Indian Association of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeons, (IACTS), 2014 – 2015
• President, Indian Association of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeons, (IACTS), 2015 – 2016

Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon since 30 years. Have performed more than 12000 surgeries across all age groups and all forms of complexities.

KDAH Experience

Have set up the Childrens Heart Centre at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in June 2009. The centre has performed more than 10,000 congenital heart procedures, more than 8000 corrective surgeries and 2000 cardioloogiacl interventions. All spectrum of complexity of congenital heart surgeries have been handled by the surgeons of Children Heart Centre.

Dr. Suresh Rao has been involved in the development of Congenital Heart Surgery in India since 1988. He has contributed to its advancement by setting up two successful centres of national repute, first in Kochi and the at KDAH in Mumbai. Today, KDAH is the largest private congenital heart centre across Western India. The types, varieties and complexities of cases handled from neonates to adults , with a success rate matching international benchmarks makes the Children Heart Centre one of the foremost centres in this part of the world. Dr. Rao has been greatly instrumental in this journey by providing leadership, Surgical skills and developing a multidisciplinary team. He has been the National President of the Pediatric Cardiac Society of India & the Indian Association of CardioVascular Thoracic Surgeons.

Publications

• 40 Publications in International & National Journals

Professional Memberships

• Life Member & Past President  Pediatric Cardiac Society of India
• Life Member & Past president IACTS
• Member, European Association of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeons
• Member, World Society of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery
• Member, Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Society
• Member, ELSO

Double Switch Surgery- Performed Successfully For The First Time in Mumbai | Cardiovascular Surgery Paediatric

The Pediatric Cardiac team at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital led by Dr Suresh Rao has written a new chapter in the history of Pediatric Heart Surgery in Mumbai.

The team performed the 10-hour surgery on the 12-month-old child without any complications.In what could be another first in Mumbai city as far as  Complex Congenital Heart Surgery is concerned -- a  "Double Switch Operation with VSD closure"  with L- Transposition of great arteries and a large VSD ( Hole in the heart) weighing 5.5 kgs.

Explaining the case, Dr Suresh Rao, Head - Division of Congenital Heart Disease, said: This condition involves wrong connections at two levels in the heart, between the pumping chambers and the large blood vessels exiting the heart, associated with a large hole between the ventricles since birth, leading to ill health and stunted growth for the child.

What make this surgery unique and extremely complex, is that three major procedures inside and outside the heart needed to be carried out, each step being an operation by itself, namely – atrial switch (Senning Operation), Arterial Switch and Closure of VSD.

The marathon surgery took ten hours to perform with the heart being stopped for more than three hours for the corrective surgery took place.

The issues involved to make this procedure a success, other than skilful surgical technical expertise, are management of the heart lung machine during such a long operation in a small baby, the intensive care to be delivered in aiding an uncomplicated recovery and the fact that the child did not need a pacemaker which is usually required after this form of surgery.

The child celebrated his first birth day at the hospital and can now look forward to a normal growth and life hereafter.

Other key members of the team contributing to the success of the surgery were, Dr Snehal Kulkarni and Dr Swati Garekar(Pediatric Cardiologists) - Dr S R Mohanty and Dr Bipin Radhakrishnan(Pediatric Cardiac Surgeons) -  Dr A Ranganathan and Dr Jeril,  (Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiologists & Intensivists) – Mr Manoj ( Pediatric & Neonatal perfusionist) and the team of Pediatric Cardiac Operation Room and ICU nurses.

With this surgery and expertise becoming available to residents of this city and its environs at a reasonable cost, patients would now not need to go outside for treatment as has been the norm till recently, when they had to go to Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai or Kochi, involving great hardship and dislocation to the affected children and families.