An international workshop - the first of its kind in S.E. Asia - on aortic aneurysms was inaugurated on 9 January 2015 MIOT International, in Manapakkam, Chennai. The aim of this workshop was to create more awareness about the risks and problems that result from aortic aneurysms. Doctors participating in the two-day workshop demonstrated techniques on how to minimise it and also perform hybrid surgeries.

Simply put, an aortic aneurysm is a bulge that occurs in the largest blood vessel in the body. This can form anywhere in the aorta - close to the aortic arch from where the blood is pumped to the brain, close to the aortic valves and coronary arteries, in the arms or in
the vessels that lead to the thoraco-abdominal aorta (the kidney, liver, stomach and intestines.

Some 600,000 people in India develop aneurysms, but less than 1000 cases are detected and treated. Addressing the workshop, MIOT's chief interventional radiologist, Dr. K. Murali, said, "Death occurs within two to three after an aneurysm ruptures."

Dr. V. V. Bashi, Chairman of the MIOT Centre for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Care, explained that the conventional treatment of choice was to use blood thinners during an open heart surgery to treat an aortic aneurysm. Today, they are managed with stents
grafting or a combination of blood thinners and stents in hybrid surgery. He said blood loss used to be quite high in conventional cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, but modern equipment such as cell savers are able to suction, wash and re-infuse blood back
into the patient's bloodstream.

Speaking at the inauguration of the two-day meet, Prof. Dr. PVA Mohandas, founder and mentor of MIOT International, urged doctors and healthcare professionals to adopt medical technology from other countries and adapt it to suit Indian circumstances. He
said that Japan has been adapting borrowed technology successfully for several years.