The Sentient Summit - a highly specialized workshop designed for exchange of knowledge amongst cardiologists and cardiac surgeons

• For the first time in Indian history, the largest number of Cardiac Surgeons & Cardiologists come together to discuss, debate and deliberate, which treatment modalities are best for patients in this ever changing landscape of modern healthcare.

Chennai, 6 June, 2019: The Sentient Summit is a highly specialized workshop designed for exchange of knowledge amongst almost 400 cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, sitting together for the first time to discuss the best route to the best medical outcomes. Traditionally, valve diseases were treated surgically. However, current breakthroughs in cardiac care technology have made valve treatments possible through transcatheter modalities. 

The main objective of Sentient Summit 2019 is to discuss and deliberate how valve therapies can be made less invasive for patients, more effective and more viable in self-paying environments like India. This means that this will be one of those rare occasions where leading cardiologists & cardiac surgeons from around the world, will be sitting down to deliberate some of the latest methodologies, by which they can ensure the right procedures are accessible to the right patients. The Summit also addresses how best practices from international experts can be applied in India to ensure the best medical outcomes for cardiac patients.

Dr Sai Satish, Senior interventional cardiologist at Apollo Hospitals

On the 8^th and 9^th of June 2019 in Chennai, the international faculty will be sharing their experiences and knowledge with lead interventional cardiologists and cardiac surgeons from India. The international course directors comprise of none other than Dr. Susheel Kodali, Director of the Structural Heart & Valve Center at Columbia University Medical Center, USA who has been involved in the major trials comparing transcatheter therapy with surgery. It also includes, Dr. Ganesh Manoharan, from the Queens University of Belfast, who has trained more than 300 regional cardiology centers in Europe, USA, Asia and Australia in starting up their valve programs; Dr. Peter Andreka & Dr. Geza Fontos from the Gottsegen Institute of Cardiology, Budapest, Hungary who are credited with running one of the highest number of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement training programs in the world; Dr. Paul Chiam, from Singapore, who performed the first transcatheter aortic valve replacement in Asia; Dr. Michael Caskey, practicing cardiothoracic surgeon from Phoenix; Dr. Kay Woon Ho from Singapore; Dr. Hyo-Soo Kim from Korea; Dr. Brijeshwar S Maini from Florida and Dr. Wachin Buddhari from Thailand.

The summit also has a star-studded national faculty comprising Dr. A B Mehta, Director of Cardiology, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai; Dr. Ajit Mullasari, Director of Cardiology, Madras Medical Mission & Dr. Mathew Samuel, Director of Cardiology, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.

About The Sentient Summit (http://www.sentientsummit.com/)

Dedicated to teaching, the Sentient Summit is a highly specialized conference series targeting professionals who want to start structural heart programs in their respective centers. And for specialists already performing structural heart therapies, it is a platform to update themselves on best practices from experts from all over the world. The Sentient Summit was conceived and organized by Dr. Sai Satish, who is an international trainer for transcatheter aortic valve programs. He has trained interventional cardiologists from more than 20 countries in aortic valve implants and is credited with having the highest number of MitraClip implants in India till date. Dr Sai Satish is a senior interventional cardiologist at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.

About Transcatheter Therapies

Most of us consider India a young country with half the population below 25 years of age. However a closer look shows the other end of the age spectrum is growing steadily. By 2050, our senior citizens will treble, with 434 million under the ‘oldest old’ category (aged 80+). This number is worrisome when you note that cardiovascular disorders account for one third of elderly mortality. Sadly, most octa- & nonagenarians diagnosed with cardiac disease don’t have many avenues of treatment available to them due to their advanced years.

Take aortic stenosis, for instance. The aortic valve opens when the heart contracts to allow blood to pass. When this valve begins to get narrow due to age and other factors, it restricts blood flow. Every year we diagnose more than a million cases of aortic stenosis in India. It affects 1 in 8 people over the age of 75. It also has a higher mortality rate than most cancers. Once severe aortic stenosis is diagnosed, patients have an astounding mortality of 90% in 4 years if left untreated. Surgery is rarely an option and so most physicians rely on medical management. This approach helps add longevity to our geriatric patients. However, it also lowers their quality of life, slowing them down steadily, eventually confining them to their beds.

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) or Transcatheter Aortic Valve implantation (TAVI) is a minimally invasive procedure performed on a beating heart, and does not require cardio-pulmonary bypass. Instead, revolutionary valves, constructed from a combination of metal mesh and animal tissue, are delivered via a thin wire (catheter) usually through the femoral artery and then expanded in place. A patient can be home and active in less than 5 days!

This therapy can be used to 90-year-olds with severely calcified & damaged valves, bicuspid or 2-leaflet aortic valves, aortic valves with metallic surgically implanted mitral valves nearby, surgically replaced aortic valves that have failed and even patients with heavily leaking aortic valves. Another condition that’s common in senior citizens is mitral regurgitation in which the heart's mitral valve leaflets do not close tightly. As a result, blood flows backward from the heart's left ventricle into the left atrium. The heart must then work harder to push blood through the body, causing fatigue, shortness of breath and in extreme cases, heart failure.

The MitraClip (another transcatheter therapy) repairs the mitral valve by clipping its leaflets together. This drastically improves outcomes in patients, lowering hospitalizations and improving their quality of life. Introduced in India last year, this revolutionary procedure is now treating leaking mitral valves in critically-ill, and inoperable heart failure patients giving them a new lease of life.