Sept. 21: The Bengal government today allowed heart transplant and Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences becomes the first hospital to get licence for the procedure.

The Mukundapur hospital, off the Bypass, had applied for the licence earlier this year.

"The hospital was inspected in the last week of August. We are satisfied with the infrastructure and issued the licence today," said Biswa Ranjan Satpathi, the director of health services.

A hospital needs a specialised cardiac operating theatre, trained cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, and cardiac anaesthetists for heart transplant procedures. It must also have "a highly-equipped intensive therapy unit".

R. Venkatesh, regional director (east), Narayana Health, of which the Mukundapur facility is the flagship unit, said the hospital was planning to start cardiac transplant as soon as the first patient was identified.

Regular heart failure clinics will be conducted at the hospital to identify and treat patients during their evaluation for heart transplant.

For a cardiac transplant, the heart is harvested within six hours of a patient being declared brain dead.

Three surgeries are involved - harvesting a heart, removal of the diseased heart of the recipient and implanting the healthy heart.

Doctors said those suffering from end-stage heart failure and have about six months' life expectancy are recommended for a heart transplant.

The end-stage heart failure is caused by weakening of the heart muscles because of coronary artery disease, valve disease or some unknown factors.

"Less than 25 per cent of such patients live beyond a year. But a heart transplant can increase the life expectancy of around 75 per cent of the patients. More than 60 per cent have their life expectancy increased by at least five years," said Kunal Sarkar, cardiothoracic surgeon and senior vice-chairman of Medica Superspecialty Hospital.

Sarkar said about 270 patients undergo heart transplant every year. The count was just 20 five years back.

Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka account for more than 80 per cent of the heart transplant surgeries.

A transplant costs Rs 7-8 lakh on an average, doctors say. An assisted heart device implant, in contrast, costs about Rs 1 crore.

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