( From top ) Ramakanta Panda, Pradyoth Rath, Narendra Garach, Vijay D’Silva

New Delhi, Jan. 23: In cardiology circles, they call him the man who operates on the unoperable.

Cardiothoracic surgeon Ramakanta Panda has performed high-risk heart surgeries on more than 2,200 people, but tomorrow a nation of a billion people will await the display of his surgical skills on his most high-profile patient yet.

Panda from the Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai, will lead a joint team from the AHI and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to perform the coronary artery bypass graft on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The 53-year-old surgeon has performed more than 10,000 bypass procedures over the past two decades, making him one of the highest-volume surgeons in the world.

But the decision to request him to operate on Singh, sources said, was because of his feats with high-risk surgeries, particularly repeat bypass procedures which are technically more complex than first-time bypass surgeries.

“He’s clearly the most experienced in redo [repeat] bypass surgeries,” a senior doctor associated with Singh’s diagnosis and treatment told The Telegraph.

Panda, who trained in cardiac surgery from AIIMS itself and gained experience at hospitals in the US and the UK, has performed more than 700 repeat bypass procedures and 1,500 high-risk surgeries, according to his profile described by the AHI.

Repeat bypass surgeries become complicated because of previous surgical work on the tissues and blood vessels. “His team has taken on patients whom some surgeons would be loathe or nervous to take on,” a source said.

Sources said Panda also has one of the safest surgical records in the world with a mortality rate of less than 0.5 per cent in isolated coronary artery bypass surgeries over the past five years.

“This is superior to about 1 per cent in some good medical institutions in the US, and much better than the 2 per cent to 3 per cent in some Indian institutions,” said a senior cardiologist who requested anonymity. However, he cautioned that Indian figures are based on anecdotal accounts because nationwide statistics on surgical mortality are not available.

A source said the high success rate is obtained not just through surgical skills, but a rigorous implementation of surgical protocols and systems. The AHI in Mumbai doesn’t even allow flowers in the hospital, a source said.

Panda is likely to be assisted during the surgery tomorrow by another cardiovascular surgeon, Pradyoth Rath, anesthetist Narendra Garach and critical care specialist Vijay D’Silva from the AHI. Doctors from AIIMS will also participate in the procedure.

“Both teams will work as one,” a senior doctor said. “This is not Delhi Daredevils versus Mumbai Indians. This is Team India batting for the PM.”

In his free time, Panda is a keen photographer, a source close to him said.

Over the years, he has waived fees for hundreds of economically handicapped patients and he is involved in charitable work in his home state Orissa where he obtained his MBBS degree.