Sri Lanka to establish a human heart valve bank

September 19, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka cabinet has given approval to establish a Human Heart Valve bank at a cost of 30 million rupees to provide cardiac valves and tissues necessary for valve replacement and repair of some of the congenital and acquired heart diseases. The proposal was submitted to the cabinet by Maithripala Sirisena, Minister of Health in Sri Lanka. The bank will be establish at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital in Colombo.

The process had been initiated through the Children's Heart Project of Sri Lanka and the Oxford Tissue Bank has already agreed to provide the necessary technical support and advice for the purpose, a statement said.

It is estimated that approximately 2500 to 3000 children are born with congenital heart defects in Sri Lanka annually and around 2000 of them need corrective surgery.

The current practice in Sri Lanka is to use imported bovine grafts (Tissue valves) which cost about 300,000 rupees per graft. Sri Lanka Government borne the cost of the graft.