HealthCare Global Enterprises Limited (HCG) and US-based medical consultants major, Medi-Coin has entered into a strategic alliance to set up an international Centre for excellence for bloodless surgery in the country.

The Centre will now aggressively promote the concept of bloodless surgery which is recognized as safe and effective for patients. There is also a huge cost saving component in the procedure that is expected to benefit patients to obtain high-tech quality care at affordable cost.

The HCG & Medi-Coin alliance will also put in place a set of protocols and procedures. This includes a patient consent via a Bloodless Medicine Surgery Directive and Release of Liability (BMSD&RL) which documents the patients refusal and acceptance of transfusion and other alternative treatment modalities during surgical procedures. The pact will also look at raising the standards in surgery to prevent unnecessary blood loss and in turn help in prudent blood management.

Further, through the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management (SABM), a multidisciplinary team of professionals adhering to scientific validation, evidence-based practices and focused on promoting the patients' interest through effective and optimal blood management will organize comprehensive training and awareness on simple, safe and effective blood management practices to surgeons, anaesthetists and patients.

According to Micheal J Columbus, co-founder, Medi-Coin, blood less surgery is the future of medicine and a cutting edge technology. Medi-Coin has set-up 120 bloodless surgery centres world wide and HCG was opted as a Centre of Excellence in India given its capabilities in onco surgery. As an international Centre, HCG would now be able to train and exchange experts in the area of blood less surgery.

We looked at India for its medical expertise and technology utilization in surgeries. There is need for appropriate blood management during pre-operation, intraoperative and post operative conditions. The key objective is to reduce blood transfusion to prevent infection and blood salvage, he added.

To begin with the Centre for Excellence will promote blood less surgery for liver and biliary tract cancer, which subsequently would be expanded to cover procedures including other Hepato-biliary diseases, said Dr Sanjay, Govil, consultant, Hepato-biliary-Pancretic and liver transplantation surgeon, HCG.

The economies-of-scale will result out of the cost of blood saved per unit and the prevention of related complications that can reduce hospitalization charges. In the US, it is estimated that one unit of blood by Red Cross costs US$ 500 and extended hospitalization arising out of Systemic Inflammatory Response or infections or transfusion reactions would work out to around US$ 1,200. In the case of stem cell transplants, the cost is estimated at US$ 200,000 in the US, where blood-less surgery is a common norm. Back in India this would provide a huge benefit to patients undergoing similar procedures here, said Columbus.

Concept of blood less surgery which was not commonly practised sofar has is of considerable interest with the US Military and South Africa government which have acknowledged its importance to prevent transfusion infections like AIDS and Hepatitis C, he said.