MGM Healthcare has established a lung failure clinic to treat various kinds of lung diseases. Chronic lung diseases are progressive diseases that lead to respiratory failure and supplementary home oxygen inhalation therapy dependence.
Common symptoms of end-stage lung disease are cough, progressive breathlessness, extreme fatigue and sleep disturbances. They may lead to secondary pulmonary hypertension and heart disease.
Treatment modalities include pulmonary rehabilitation, nebulised medication, oxygen therapy, pulmonary vasodilators, non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and vaccinations. Around 5-10% of the patients may need lung transplantation.
Patients are treated by a team of pulmonologists, pulmonary rehabilitation therapists and nutritionists. The hospital since its establishment two-and-a-half years ago has performed 97 lung transplants, including on a person who had recovered from COVID-19 infection.
The team includes K.R. Balakrishnan, director, and K. G. Suresh Rao, co-director of the Institute of Heart and Lung Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support; Prasanna Kumar Thomas and S. Jayaraman, senior consultant pulmonologists; Soumitra Sinha Roy, senior consultant, Interventional Pulmonology and and Lung Transplant Programme; and A.J. Rajendran, senior consultant and clinical lead, Rehabilitation Medicine.
