Knee replacement surgeries on the rise

City hospitals get new technology to treat the painful disability, reports Naziya Alvi.

Kalyan resident Shobha (22) is the youngest patient to have undergone a total knee replacement (TKR) surgery at Wockhardt Hospital in Mulund, this year. In May, Madhukar Nimdeo (90) also underwent surgery to have both his knees replaced at the same hospital.

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Shobha and Nimdeo are only two of the 450 patients that Dr Kaushal Malhan, a senior orthopedic surgeon at the hospital, helped to get back on their feet. With knee arthritis affecting patients as young as 18 years olds, an increasing number of patients are opting for TKR surgeries instead of living with the painful disability.

At Tardeo’s Bhatia Hospital too orthopedic surgeon Dr Ameet P. Pispati has performed TKR surgeries on more than 250 patients between the age group of 18 to 90 years.

“With insurance firms covering surgeries such as TKR, people no longer want to live with the problem anymore,” said Dr Nilen Shah, orthopedic and joint replacement consultant at Bombay Hospital, Churchgate. Shah has performed the same surgery on some 370 patients. His youngest patient was 24 while the eldest was in his late 80s.

With this growing demand for the TKR surgery, hospitals are now investing in newer techniques and equipment.

Bombay Hospital has installed machine, which costs around Rs 1 crore, called the Stryker's OrthoMap Articular Surface Mounted Knee Navigation. The machine provides a less invasive option than regular surgery by allowing a computer to help the surgeon navigate through muscle and tissue during a TKR surgery.

“This machine is best recognised as an advanced surgical technique to perform TKR surgery,” said Dr Shah, who claimed to have completed 100 TKR surgeries with this technology on Monday.

Shah’s navigation technique, which he claimed to have pioneered in Mumbai, does not require the insertion of additional large pins in the thighbone and the shinbone. “New knee joints that are implanted through this technique allow full flexibility and mobility when implanted properly,” said Shah.

In October, Wockhartd Hospital had operated on Nimdeo with another relatively advanced technique called, tissue-preserving TKR, which reduces blood loss and allows a patient to walk within hours of surgery.

“This technique offers good results even for very old patients because of minimal tissue damage around the operating site,” said Malhan.