Rachit Saxena

I would describe myself as a Cardiac Surgeon not by profession but by passion. Cardiac surgery was my dream during the school days and I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to fulfill my professional dream. I have set the following targets for the rest of my professional life -

A) Development of cardiac surgery -

Globally, there has been a lot of technical progress in the last decade in the field of cardiac surgery - specially aortic surgery, minimally invasive and robotic surgery and mechanical circulatory devices. I believe that these are the future of cardiac surgery and I want to work towards further development of these subspecialities in our country so that we are comparable to the best of cardiac surgical centres of the world.

B) To make cardiac surgery available and accessible to every Indian

Cardiac surgery has very limited permeation in the Indian Health System and at the ground level, cardiac surgery is not available readily to the masses. I have been working aggressively in this aspect through a big outreach program managed by me in the neighboring states of U.P, U.K., Bihar and Haryana. I believe we need to establish a robust referral system so that the complex cardiac diseases are managed at the quaternary care centres to achieve good end result.

C) To change the way people think about cardiac surgery:

Cardiac surgery is generally thought of as a very high risk and very painful treatment which infact is nothing more than a myth and almost all the elective cardiac surgical procedures can be done with minimal surgical risk and almost no morbidity. My entire practice revolves around making the procedure safe and very comfortable for the patient.

B) Patient and Family satisfaction: I believe in extensive patient counseling and timely sharing of all information related to the treatment so that there is a healthy doctor patient relationship leaving no scope for any misconceptions and disbelief in the treatment given.

C) Result oriented approach: I and my team always analyzes our surgical results periodically and there is thorough introspection with the aim of how to further refine our strategies so that we can provide even better results and minimize complications. Any mishappening in a case would bring about a very honest and intricate assessment of our steps so as to ensure that we don’t repeat our mistakes.

D) Academic excellence: I am very active in attending and organizing workshops and CME programs frequently held at my Alma mater AIIMS and elsewhere where there is lot to learn from international as well as national stalwarts in various fields of cardiac surgery. I want to take this further and want to be a part of an academic institute to further organize training programs and put in efforts to develop better cardiac surgeons for future.

Actively participated in organizing the CME programs, workshops and provide hands-on training programs held at A.I.I.M.S. New Delhi since 2010. The following is a list of the presentations / role played in the various academic activities.

Year 2012

1. Aortic workshop:

Active member of the organization committee.

Presentations on

a) Pathophysiology and natural history of acute aortic dissections

b) Evidence based Guidelines.

c) Decision making in aortic aneurysm surgery.

2. International Mitral valve repair live workshop:

Active member of the organization committee.

Assisted Dr. Van Phan and Dr Azhari Yakub

Year 2013:

1. Tetrology Of Fallot workshop:

Active member of the organization committee.

a) Video presentation on the anatomy of tetrology of fallot.

b) Post operative complications and management.

2. CME on prosthetic heart valves:

Active member of the organization committee.

Presentations on

a) Valve terminology

b) Decision making

c) Patient prosthesis mismatch

3. Bentall’s workshop:

Presentations on

a) Structure nomenclature and anatomy of proximal aorta

b) Decision making

c) Indian solutions and hardware in aortic surgery.

Year 2014

1. Mitral valve repair live workshop:

Active member of the organization committee.

Assisted in the operation theatre.

PUBLICATIONS

1. Staged repair of pulmonary atresia, ventricular septal defect, andmajor systemic to pulmonary artery collaterals. Sachin Talwar, Rachit Saxena, Shiv Kumar Choudhary, Balram Airan. Annals of PediatricCardiology 2010 Vol 3 Issue 2: 136-9.

2. Thrombus in the proximal aorta: cardiopulmonary bypass strategy and surgical management. Rachit Saxena, Vinod Kumar, Parag Gardhe, Sachin Talwar, Shiv Kumar Choudhary. Ann Thoracic Surg 2015;100:311-3.

3.Persistent truncus arteriosus repaired beyond infancy. Sachin Talwar, Rachit Saxena, Shiv Kumar Choudhary, Balram Airan. Indian J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg (July-September 2012)28(3):171-176

4.Role of systemic to pulmonary artery shunt after cavopulmonary anastamosis. Pankaj Garg, Sachin Talwar, Rachit Saxena, Balram Airan. J Card Surg 2013;28:599-603

5.Migrated Kirschner Wire in the Posterior Mediastinum. Rachit Saxena, Muthukumaran S. Sachin Talwar, Shiv Kumar Choudhary. Heart, Lung and Circulation 2013;xxx:1-2.

6.Repair of Concomitant Double Orifice Mitral and Tricuspid Valves Rachit Saxena, Sachin Talwar, Parag Gharde, Manikala Vinod Kumar and Shiv Kumar Choudhary. World Journal for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery 2016, Vol 7(1) 120-122.

7.Transesophageal Echocardiography is more sensitive than transthoracic echocardiography in detecting residual atrial septal defect at the inferior vena caval end. Sambhunath Das, Bhuvana Vijayakanthi, Rachit Saxena, Balram Airan. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth Sep 2012; 26 (6), e79-e80.

PAPER PRESENTATIONS

Paper presentations done at The 60th IACTS – Annual meeting, Kovalam Trivandrum 2014.

1. Is routine Computerized Tomographic Angiography justified in patients undergoing Aortic Valve Replacement for Bicuspid Aortic Valve Disease?

2. Mycobacterial aortopathy: an institutional review

3. A rare case of large ascending aortic thrombus.

Presentations done at 61st IACTS – Annual Meeting, Hyderabad, 2015.

1. Carotid Artery Cannulation For Antegrade Cerebral Perfusion During Complex Aortic Surgeries.

2. Surgical management of Bald Arch Syndrome : Lessons learnt

3. Cardiopulmonary Bypass Strategy And Neurological Outcome In Patients Undergoing Normothermic Aortic Arch Procedures Without Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest.