Dr Krishnakant Sahu, Head of Department and heart, chest and vascular surgeon of Advance Cardio-thoracic and Vascular Surgery department, Dr Bheemrao Ambedkar Memorial Hospital, Raipur said, smoking and use of tobacco products have increased the number of Peripheral Vascular Disease (PAD) and coronary artery disease, which are taking more lives than the cancer.
But these two diseases do not find more mention than cancer, which is reaching dangerous proportion, he added.
Interacting exclusively with ‘The Pioneer’, he said more people in the age group of 30-50 years die due to smoking and use of tobacco products. Earlier, in India people in the age group of 50 years and above used to suffer from heart diseases. But the age limit has now come down to 40 years.
On PAD symptoms, he said, “Generally it starts in the age group of 30-50 years. The patient does not feel anything as there is no outer symptom until arteries of both legs shrank by 60-70 percent. Once that happens, the victim finds it difficult to walk even 2-3 kilometres. Gradually it reduces to 500 metres, which is technically known as ‘claudication’. The patient then feels continuous pain in leg.”
He adds, further ulcer in legs develops which than aggravates to ‘gangrene’, which leads to limb amputation. The other symptoms are loss of hair on limbs and unhealthy nails.
On treatment, Dr Sahu said, “In coronary diseases stent can be used but for this ‘diffusely diseases’ condition nothing is possible except for surgery and replacement.”
On success rate of surgery, he said in both cases by-pass of legs and heart, the result is poor. Even in lung cancer there are two conditions one is primary where the smoker is affected and secondary case where smoking affects the passive smoker.
Giving a message, Dr Sahu said, “One should avoid smoking and consumption of tobacco products and also avoid passive smoking. Those having attained age of 30 and above should go for regular cardiac and lungs checkup. This will help for early detection and timely treatment of diseases.