Bentall procedure Cost in New Delhi, India

The cost of the Bentall procedure in New Delhi typically ranges from $1,900 to $7,000 USD (about ₹1.80 lakh to ₹6.64 lakh), depending on the hospital, room category and type of procedure.

What you pay depends mainly on your own case. If your surgery is planned, you recover without problems and you stay in a shared room, your bill is likely to be closer to $1,900 (about ₹1.80 lakh). It is likely to be nearer $7,000 (about ₹6.64 lakh) if your operation is more complex or a repeat operation, you need longer in intensive care, special valves or grafts are used, or you choose a private room.

When comparing New Delhi packages for the Bentall procedure, check whether each quote includes:

• Surgeon and anaesthetist fees
• Operating theatre or procedure room
• Intensive care days
• Valves, grafts or devices
• Hospital stay and room category
• Medicines and consumables
• Follow-up visits before you fly home

In the Bentall procedure, surgeons replace the aortic valve, the aortic root and the start of the aorta with a single graft that carries a valve, and then sew the coronary arteries back on.

The operation is used when an enlarged aortic root comes with a damaged aortic valve, for root dissection, for a bicuspid valve with a widened aorta and for connective-tissue conditions such as Marfan syndrome.

The Marfan Foundation stresses that outcomes are much better when surgery happens before a dissection.

If the aortic valve itself is healthy, a valve-sparing root replacement may preserve it and avoid the compromises of an artificial valve. The Marfan Foundation describes valve-sparing re-implantation as the standard approach of this kind in connective-tissue disorders.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust points out that a mechanical valve means lifelong warfarin.

Fit-to-fly window: UK Civil Aviation Authority guidance for health professionals suggests about 10 to 14 days after chest surgery; after emergency surgery for a dissection, recovery and clearance usually take longer.

A Delhi estimate for the Bentall procedure is usually built from these parts:

• Pre-operative evaluation: angiogram, echocardiogram, blood tests and anaesthetic review.
• Operating theatre and perfusion: theatre time and the heart-lung machine team.
• Surgeon and team tier: consultant fees differ by hospital and seniority.
• Valve inside the graft: mechanical or tissue.
• Planned or urgent operation: for example after a dissection.
• Intensive care and total stay: commonly 10 days or more.
• Scans needed: CT angiogram and echocardiogram.

Ask the Delhi hospital for a written, itemised estimate naming the device or implant brand, the expected intensive care days and the room category.

Delhi NCR has a large concentration of private cardiac centres with cardiothoracic theatres, perfusion teams and cardiac intensive care units, so international patients can compare written estimates from two or three hospitals before travelling.

India's national hospital standard is set by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), a constituent board of the Quality Council of India whose standards are accredited by ISQua; you can check a Delhi hospital's current NABH status on the NABH website.

Delhi has a long record with international accreditation: India's first hospital to receive Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation, in July 2005, is in New Delhi, and JCI keeps a public list of accredited organisations.

Ask the hospital's international patient desk, where one exists, whether it provides the hospital letter for the e-Medical visa application, airport pickup, interpreters and help with nearby accommodation.