By Dr. Ravindra Patil
When the diagnosis is of a brain tumour, the first fear is of death and the second fear is the cost of treatment.
Treatments of tumours is usually of three types, with medicines [called chemotherapy], brain tumour surgery and radiation therapy.
Everyperson will try to seek brain tumour treatment without surgery first because everyone is afraid of surgery. Yes, brain tumour treatment without surgery is possible, but a benign tumour [non-cancerous tumour] is best treated by surgery as it can be removed totally.
Brain tumour treatment without surgery would seem to be so ideal. No need to cut open the skull with the possibility of damaging the brain. What are the types of brain tumour treatment without surgery?
Medical treatment for brain tumour treatment without surgery is called chemotherapy. it uses anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to destroy brain tumour cells. But remember, medicines whether injected or taken orally circulate throughout your body in the bloodstream. Thus the cytotoxic drugs may damage other parts of the body. Besides, it can be difficult to treat brain tumours with some chemotherapy drugs because the drugs cannot cross what is know as the “blood brain barrier”.
A typical a course of chemotherapy treatment may last 6-12 months, consisting of 6-12 cycles. Patients are given chemotherapy for a few days, every few weeks.
There are three main types of treatments. You may need more than one type of treatment.
This is of course the mainstay of treatment in benign [non-cancerous] brain tumours. Remove it and forget it.
But in many cases all three types of treatments are used in treating brain tumours. The surgeon removes the tumour, the radiation oncologist gives radiation to treat any residual tumour cells and the medical oncologist gives anti-cancer cytotoxic medicines to completely eradicate any cancer cells.
It seems obvious that brain tumour surgeries can be done only in major cities and in large corporate hospitals. Such hospitals have the best equipment and the best doctors under one roof. But they also charge a lot of money. Brain surgery cost in India or anywhere is always high. But there are reasons for that.
Brain tumours treatments needs a lot of diagnostic workup. Imaging like CT scan, MRI scan and PET scan are required. Then brain tumour operations require a lot of very expensive equipment. The operation theatre itself must be made specially with HEPA filters and laminar airflow.
The equipment inside a brain surgery operation theatre must ideally have a stereotactic frame, surgical navigation andimaging screens apart from the operation theatre lights, operation theatre table, anaesthesia trolley and so on. Special equipment like CUSA [Cavitronic Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator] may be required, which again adds to the cost.
For recovery after a brain tumour operation requires an intensive care unit [ICU] for a few days. Later on the patient can be shifted to a special room. He/she cannot be put in a general ward as brain tumour patients need special care.
Physiotherapy is necessary after the brain tumour operation. Functional recovery must be slowly gained by appropriate gentle exercise under the supervision of a trained physiotherapist.
Sometimes speech therapy may be required. Other therapies like occupational therapies may be needed.
Sometimes implants or devices are put into the skull or brain and these stay inside the brain forever. Such devices are extremely expensive. They add to brain surgery cost in India.
Lastly but also very importantly, hospitals in metropolitan or cosmopolitan cities occupy land that is very, veryhigh-priced. That also coverts to higher costs of every brain tumour treatment patient. Building a new hospital in a city like Mumbai is unthinkable even for large corporates because of the high cost of land.
Not surprisingly, lot of overhead costs are reduced when there is a good hospital with a good team of medical and paramedical professionals in a small town.
Samarth Neuro and Superspeciality Hospital is a good example of a Corporate Hospital in smaller twin towns of Miraj and Sangli in the south of the state of Maharashtra in India.
Dr Ravindra Patil, a gold medallist neurosurgeon heads Samarth Neuro and Superspeciality Hospital. They do lots of brain tumour surgeries there. Their outcomes are comparable to brain tumour operations done anywhere in India.
And Samarth Neuro and Superspeciality Hospital charges much less as compared to the cost of brain tumour operations in cosmopolitan or metropolitan cities.
There are many reasons that the cost of brain tumour surgery in India is lesser in smaller cities and towns. It starts from lower cost of land, less land revenue, smaller distances to the city centre and relatively easier approachability.
Dr Ravindra Patil trained in large cities and did thousands of surgeries before he decided to settle in his home-town smaller cities of Miraj and Sangli. His aim was to to serve his fellow citizens and also to get away from the crowds. But the biggest reason was that he could build a sustainable hospital in these smaller tier two cities. Thus began the journey of Samarth Neuro and Superspeciality Hospital alongwith Dr Ravindra’s surgical skills.
He began with small brain tumour operations and soon increased his services to head injuries and road traffic accidents and surgeries for many other brain disorders. Today Dr Ravindra is one of the foremost neurosurgeons in south Maharashtra and Samarth Neuro and Superspeciality Hospital has top end equipment for nearly every brain tumour operation. Apart from CT Scanner and well-equipped operation theatres with laminar air flow and HEPA filters, his hospital has Surgical Navigation systems for ultra-precision brain tumour operations of different types.
One website promotes medical tourism in India has shown the following rates of brain tumour operation or surgeries in India in different cities. Again, the figures are only general and for advertisement. The cost for brain tumour surgery in India or anywhere will depend on the type of the brain tumour operation.
It can be seen that the brain tumour surgery cost in Indiain most cities is somewhat same except in Mumbai, where the brain tumour surgery cost is the highest. But that is because Mumbai is one of the costliest cities to live in.
As has been mentioned, the brain tumour surgery cost increases in major cities because of the infrastructure, the land cost, the staff salary cost, the local taxes, cost of electricity, cost of CNG, cost of medicines, medical gases and consumables, all of which attract additional surcharges.
And not surprisingly, each and every thing of the above comes at a much lower cost in tier two or tier three cities.
However, if the skill of the leaders of the surgical team is the same, automatically the brain tumour surgery cost is reduced!
And that is why Samarth Neuro and Superspeciality Hospital headed by neurosurgeon Dr Ravindra Patil offers treatments like complex brain surgeries at a much reasonable cost in the towns of Miraj and Sangli in India. The bill for a complex surgery on a baby was only Rs 200,000 [rupees two lakhs].
AND REMEMBER, THE BABY’S FAMILY DID NOT HAVE TO INCUR ADDITIONAL COSTS IN TRAVELLING TO AND STAYING IN THE LARGER CITIES, WHICH SOMETIMES DOUBLES THE COST!
Samarth Neuro and Superspeciality Hospital has 100+ beds & specializes in emergency surgery for neurological issues/disorders & diagnostics.
Samarth Neuro and Superspeciality Hospital
