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In Sri Lanka for every 1,000 newborn babies, 6-8 are born with a heart defect. It is estimated that approximately 2,500 to 3,000 children are born with heart diseases .Currently, more than 90 per cent of children with congenital and acquired heart diseases in Sri Lanka are treated at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) for Children.Sri Lanka does not have a human heart valve bank and the current practice in Sri Lanka is to use imported bovine grafts, which costs approximately LKR 300,000 (US$ 2,300) per graft (for a country with a GDP per capita of US$ 3,280 in 2013 this is a major cost). Moreover, all sizes of these bovine grafts are not freely available when needed. In addition bovine grafts need frequent replacement as they get easily calcified.
The best option is to use human tissue grafts harvested from cadavers as human tissue grafts last longer and can be provided at a lower cost thus releasing funds for more surgeries to be carried out and to save more lives. Therefore, to supply the growing demand for human heart valves in the country, it is essential to establish our own heart valve bank in the country. This will be the first ever Heart Valave Bank
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