Lao Luxembourg Heart Institute

The Lao-Luxembourg Heart Institute is a benchmark hospital for Laos. It is integrated in the local health plan and in the policy of the Laotian government which consists of furthering high-level specialized medicine at Mahosot University Hospital, which will lead to an improvement in the overall quality of medicine in the country in the near future.

The Institute has a cardiology and cardiac surgery department with the following units:

• 1 hospitalization unit with 29 beds;
• 1 cardiological intensive care unit with 5 beds;
• 1 postoperative intensive care unit with 7 beds;
• 2 echocardiographic laboratories;
• 1 stress test laboratory;
• 1 emergency admission unit with 4 resuscitation beds;
• 2 operating theatres;
• 1 conference room;
• 3 rooms for consultations with patients.

To guarantee the autonomy of the medical and paramedical staff at the Institute, we have worked through a number of stages:

1. supply of the medical and surgical equipment and the disposables required for each mission;
2. performance of a maximum of cardiac operations on the spot by six missions per year;
3. advanced training for the Laotian cardiac surgeons and paramedical staff;
4. autonomy for adult cardiac surgery (2012);
5. post-university teaching on the spot;
6. creation of a training centre for the external staff integrated in the university process;
7. creation of a research centre on post-rheumatic valvular pathologies (2009-2011);
8. establishment of cardiac consultation in Luang Prabang, Paksé and Savannaketh to make the
9. technology and the high-performance equipment of the Institute available to the poorest and to those living furthest away from the Institute;
10. creation of a blood coagulation centre (2009).