Dr. Vinod Kumar Manikala — Senior Consultant and Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgeon in Chennai

Dr. Vinod Kumar Manikala is a Senior Consultant and Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgeon at MGM Healthcare in Chennai, with more than 20 years of experience in cardiac surgery.

His list covers coronary artery bypass grafting, heart valve repair and replacement, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, heart transplant surgery and combined heart-lung transplantation.

He holds MBBS and an MS in general surgery, and took his MCh in cardiothoracic surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

Four further periods of advanced training define the rest of his practice, and they fit together. He trained in heart and lung transplantation, in LVAD implantation, and in ECMO support at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, along with training in intricate thoracic procedures and critical care cardiothoracic interventions.

Those three technologies belong to the same pathway. A patient in advanced heart failure may be supported on ECMO in the short term, carried on a left ventricular assist device for longer, and transplanted when an organ becomes available, and a surgeon trained in all three can follow a case through each stage rather than handing it on.

His designation names minimally invasive cardiac surgery directly, and that approach sits on the same list as transplantation, so his practice runs from operations performed through the smallest possible access to those that replace the organ altogether.

He practises at MGM Healthcare in Chennai.