Traditionally bypass surgery has been done through full sternotomy i.e. complete division of the chest bone. Dr. Rehan Sayeed revisited a technique pioneered by the Japanese in the early nineties but abandoned due to technical demands. The operation was used for single vessel bypass and he designed it to be usable for multi vessel beating heart bypass surgery. Currently he has done around 75 such surgeries and this is the single largest series of such cases in the world with zero mortality and zero blood transfusion rates. The average stay in the hospital is 4-5 days with little or no pain medication requirement.

In a country where rheumatic heart disease is still a major force to reckon with in children and young adults. Valve replacement is the most commonly done operation, in this age group surgeons use mechanical valves which require patients to take blood thinners. Poor patient compliance results in fatal valve blocks and deaths. Valve repair is a viable option and Dr. Rehan has initiated this program at Apollo Hospitals Bangalore. He has done around 60 such procedure with good short term results proven by echocardiography and believes that even getting 5-10 years of freedom from reoperation a success. Scientific data clearly shows that risk of reoperation is <2% while the risk of a stroke is 5% and in young women who are on Coumadin a blood thinner and get pregnant the maternal mortality rate in India is over 5%. The need of the hour is to retain god given valves and repair them which he is pursuing with a passion.