At least 45 surgeries on Mucormycosis patients are being performed at two major government hospitals in Hyderabad.
While around 30 to 35 patients are operated on four to five operation tables at the Government ENT Hospital in King Koti over 14 hours on a daily basis, Gandhi Hospital has now started conducting surgery on at least 13 Mucormycosis patients in need of ENT and Opthalmology surgeries as part of a week-long special drive initiated on Saturday.
ENT surgeons said that this is one of the highest number of surgeries performed in a day on Mucormycosis patients across the country. A maximum of 10 such surgeries are taken up at a corporate hospital.
While Mucormycosis patients without COVID are admitted at the ENT Hospital, COVID patients with the fungal infection are treated at Gandhi Hospital. Around 280 patients were admitted at the former, and around 200 at the latter.
“Our target is to operate on 40 cases a day. We have performed 163 Mucormycosis surgeries in the past five days. Of them, 20 post-operation patients were shifted to Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital so that newer patients can be admitted. Around 280 patients are admitted at our hospital,” said T. Shankar, superintendent of the ENT Hospital.
An associate professor at the hospital, Manish Gupta said four teams of doctors are working in three shifts from 8 am to 10 pm.
Superintendent of Gandhi Hospital M. Raja Rao said that the special drive which is conducted from 9 am to 5 pm helps clear the load. A team led by head of ENT department Shobhan Babu, along with doctors Sunitha and Nagarjuna Chakraborty among others are conducting the surgeries. Three operation theatres were allotted to the drive.
“Minor procedures are carried out in one to two hours, while the major ones take three to four hours. The surgeries are taken up after COVID treatment is over and the patient is stable,” said Dr Shobhan Babu.
