Materia Medica Malaysiana

90 per cent of patients who underwent open heart operations are smokers :
KUCHING, Feb 4:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Smokers made up over 90 per cent of the patients who underwent open heart operations at the Sarawak General Hospital's cardiac centre since its establishment over two years ago.
The hospital's cardiology unit head Dr Sim Kian-hui said today that 672 people underwent operations at the centre since it was opened in October, 2001.

He added the other patients operated on suffered from heart problems arising out of high blood pressure, high level of "bad" cholesterol, diabetes and genetics.

Speaking to reporters after calling on Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Abang Johari Tun Abang Openg, he said most of the patients who went for the open heart surgeries were between 45 and 52 years old.

"This is very disheartening because young people are suffering from heart problems in Malaysia while in western countries, the average ages of people having the heart operations are 65 to 70 years," he said.

Dr Sim and other staff of the cardiac centre met Abang Johari to brief him on the 7th annual scientific meeting of the Malaysian Association for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery which is scheduled to be held here from July 9 to 11.

The scientific meeting is expected to be attended by about 400 heart surgeons and medical specialists from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Italy, Japan and Malaysia.

The conference is listed in the Sarawak'a 2004 tourism calendar of events. Themed "Cardiac patients in the era of emerging techniques and technologies", it is organise by the Sarawak General Hospital's Cardiac Centre Staff Association.

Abang Johari said the meeting was in line with the ministry's aim of making Sarawak a health tourism destination. He added that health tourism was a new area Sarawak wanted to develop.

About 3.2 million tourists visited Sarawak last year compared to about three million in 2002.

Abang Johari said the number could be more had it not been for the worldwide outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the Iraq War.

"This year, we are projecting about four million arrivals," he said.