The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) included 10 hospitals and 22 Chest Pain Units, has become the only healthcare facility in the world to have treated around 1.9 million patients and performed over 3,227 cardiac surgeries and over 17,000 primary PCIs free of charge in 2021.
NICVD Spokesperson said this on Tuesday. According to him, teams of NICVD surgeons performed the aforesaid cardiac surgeries and procedures on children and adults in various cities of Sindh during 2021.
“NICVD has emerged as the only cardiac healthcare facility in the country which performed around 3,227 cardiac surgeries and over 66,518 procedures all free of charge at main NICVD centre in Karachi and nine satellite centres spread all over Sindh,” the NICVD’s spokesperson said.
He added that the NICVD Karachi also emerged as one of the largest centres in the world in terms of performing primary PCI or angioplasty during heart attack as well as elective angioplasties in a single year. Cardiologists at the NICVD performed 8,110 primary PCIs in a single year.
Regarding the number of cardiac patients examined at the main facility of the institute in Karachi, the spokesperson said the NICVD Karachi received around 1 million cardiac patients, of whom 2,692 required surgeries and were operated.
“A record number of 8,110 primary PCIs or angioplasties in emergency, around 3,465 elective angioplasties & early invasive, over 16,186 angiographies, 4 TAVI procedures, 2,962 thallium scans, 56,425 echocardiograms, 748 PPM, and 135 ICD & CRT procedures, were performed by the NICVD Karachi in 2021”, the institute spokesperson said.
He further said that, 187,653 cardiac patients visited the OPD at the NICVD Karachi in 2021, while 257,935 patients were treated in emergency and more than 41,000 patients admitted to the wards. NICVD Karachi has also performed more than 20 minimally invasive cardiac surgery or keyhole surgeries.
He added that during the year 2021, a total of 191,638 patients visited NICVD system from other provinces of the country, who were provided free treatment. A total of 51,178 patients from Punjab, 125,117 from Balochistan, 8,338 from Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, 5,369 from Azad Kashmir and 2,716 from Gilgit-Baltistan benefited from the latest and expensive treatment absolutely free.
Apart from Karachi where the main facility of the NICVD exists, the institute has been operating through its nine satellite centres, including Larkana, Tando Muhammad Khan, Hyderabad, Sehwan, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Mithi, Khairpur and Lyari.
All the satellite centres offer diagnosis facilities and other procedures. The centres at Sukkur, Larkana and Tando Muhammad Khan even have facilities of open-heart and bypass surgeries, included paediatric cardiac surgeries as well.
