Summary
Dr. Murali P. Vettath is a trailblazing coronary surgeon of this generation. Hailing from Kerala, India, he is one of the few globally renowned specialists to carry out all of his coronary surgeries using the beating-heart technique, otherwise called Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery. This approach, commonly known as OPCAB surgery, is distinguished by its circumvention of the traditional heart-lung machine, which renders it a rare and highly specialised technique. His pioneering spirit and unwavering obligation to this state-of-the-art medical procedure have made him a leading protagonist and a revered mentor. As an advocate of this avant-garde technology, Dr. Vettath has imparted his knowledge, insight, and expertise to numerous aspiring surgeons and anesthesiologists across the world, solidifying his reputation as an influential educator and clinician.
He is the only cardiac surgeon in India and around the world who has invented and patented both a proximal and a distal anastomotic device for performing Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery.
Apart from being an off-pump coronary surgeon, he has innovated, fabricated, invented, patented, and developed techniques and technology for performing off-pump coronary surgery with ease.
He is both the Director of the International Centre of Excellence in OPCAB Surgery at Meitra Hospital and the Chairman of Cardiac Surgery in the Institute of Heart, Vascular, and Transplantation.
Dr. Murali P. Vettath has been said to have an impressive educational pedigree in coronary artery surgery, having received training from renowned institutions in Australia, Holland, and Paris. In 1999, he brought his expertise to Bangladesh, where he spent three years establishing two cardiac centres, enlisting a cohort of twenty doctors and one hundred nurses from India, and training scores of cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, cardiac anesthesiologists, cardiac nurses, and paramedical staff. After his stint in Dhaka, Bangladesh, he is now settled in Kozhikode, his home town SINCE 2002.
Here, he established the Dept. of Cardiac surgery and Transplantation at the Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS), Kozhikode (2002-2017)
He came to Kozhikode at a time when all cardiac patients had to go to either Coimbatore or Kochi or even Chennai for their cardiac SURGERIES. After establishing this center and bringing both adult and pediatric cardiac surgery under one roof along with interventional cardiology, he has been instrumental in developing Kozhikode as a benchmark in Off Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting in the world .
His name was engraved in one of the stones at Kos Island, Greece, along with that of three other Indian surgeons, on the occasion of the 18th World Congress held by the World Society of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons, held between April 30 and May 3, 2008.
He has had more than 9000 open heart surgeries done here, with more than 6000 bypass surgeries being done on beating hearts (without the use of a heart-lung machine) and a mortality rate of less than 1%. Which remains better than the world standard. He is one of the few surgeons in the world who performs 100% of all CABGs on beating hearts.
