Apollo’s rare distinction in Cardiac surgeries

Renowned Heart Surgeon and Chief Cardio-Thoracic Surgeon of Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, Dr Vijay Dikshit, was felicitated by Dr Prathap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group and eminent citizens and doctors from the city, for accomplishing a rare distinction of performing over 20,000 cardiac surgeries. Dr Dikshit, who performed the first cardiac surgery way back in 1991, reached the milestone in March, 2016. This is one of the largest experience of Open Heart Surgery by any surgeon in India.

Dr Vijay Dikshit, who orginally hails from Lucknow and made Hyderabad his home - in his illustrious career of over twenty five years, most of which at Apollo Hospitals, has accomplished several landmarks. He holds a unique record of performing 362 consecutive Coronary Bypass Surgeries without any mortality or serious complication, between 1991 to 1993, which illustrated the potential he had in him to become one of the most dexterous heart surgeons in this part of the world and globally.

Dr Dikshit performed a delicate and complex heart surgery successfully on a two day old baby born with congenital heart disease, in his initial years in the profession, in 1992, again a rare accomplishment in those day and even today. Dr Dikshit spree of successful work continued with him performing the first operation of Thoracoscopic Closure of Patient Ductus Arteriosus, on a six year old male child, in South India, in 1996.

He is one of the first users and now has the largest experience in using Stentless Bioprosthetic Valve Replacement Surgery for Aortic Valve disease in India, a state of the art Tissue Heart Valve not yet commonly used in India. Dr Dikshit performed the first Heart Transplant in November 2013 under Jeevandan Scheme of Government of Andhra Pradesh.

He has the experience of highest number of Mitral Valve Replacement Operation with Complete Chordal Preservation & Artificial Chordal Reconstruction, one of the latest techniques of Mitral Valve surgery. Dr Dikshit performed over 8,500 CABGs with Beating Heart Technique. He is a recipient of the prestigious FIE National Award in 1994 from Dr Man Mohan Singh, the then Union Finance Minister, for excellence in Medical Sciences.

Rama Krishna Mission recognised and honored him for dedicated service to humanity. Medtronic Inc., USA felicitated him for performing 5000 Open Heart Surgeries in year 2000. He has won acclaim and recognition not only in India, even from abroad, with several satisfied patients from abroad singing his paeans. But Dr Vijay Dikshit says, the love and bonding I get from my patients is overwhelming, nothing can beat that. The cheer I see on their and their families' faces is what keeps me going and perform even better.

Dr Dikshit worked and got trained in several top notch and globally reputed institutions like Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesotta; The Kaiser Permanente Hospital , Los Angeles; Abbots, North Western Hospital, Minneapolis Heart Institute, Minneapolis, U.S.A; Dr Dudley Johnson’s Unit at Milwaukee; Royal Children Hospital, Melbourne, Australia with Dr Roger B Mee, a renowned authority on Paediatric Cardiac Surgery. He got hands on training in Mitral Valve Repair Surgery from Dr Alen Carpentier - a world authority for Mitral Valve Repair Surgery, at Florida, USA.