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Sassoon doctors straighten 13-year-old girl’s curved spine
The five-hour-long cosmetic surgery was carried out on a 13-year-old girl suffering from scoliosis on February 8.
PUNE Doctors of Sassoon General hospital conducted a five-hour-long cosmetic surgery on February 8 on a 13-year-old girl suffering from scoliosis.
Scoliosis is the sideways curvature of the spine and the patient, Tanuja Londhe, was born with the defect. The girl had a deformity of 57 degrees in her upper back and 50 degrees in her lower back. The doctors used a total of 24 screws to straighten Londhe’s spinal cord.
Dr Ambarish Mathesul, orthopaedic surgeon, Sassoon hospital, suggested surgical treatment.
“Such kind of back deformities called Kypho-scoliosis usually appears between the ages of five to 15 and is most common in girls. If left untreated and undiagnosed, they cause cosmetically unappealing appearance of the back, stunted height and may also lead to loss of power of both the legs. The ideal age for treatment of these patients is between 10 to 15 years,”said Dr Ambarish.
The doctors used equipment such as neuromonitoring was used to prevent damage to the spinal cord. Measures were also taken to reduce blood loss. According to doctors, Londhe is recovering well.
Dr Chandanwale said that in private hospitals, these surgeries cost between Rs five lakh to Rs six lakh, but at Sassoon Hospital the procedure is comparatively cheaper due to various government schemes.
