Titanium implant saves man’s leg
In a rare surgery, a surgeon removed a malignant tumour in the thigh bone and replaced the bone with an artificial limb made of titanium instead of amputating the leg from the hip to save the patient’s life.
Dr Maichand, senior consultant at B.L. Kapur Hospital said the patient, Prem Narayan, 41, was having a malignant tumour in his thigh bone which caused him enormous difficulty in walking.
Cancer cells can spread anywhere in the body by growing into the surrounding blood vessels or lymphatic channels and then circulating to the lymph nodes in the region or beyond to vital organs such as liver, lungs or thigh bone (femur), said the surgeon.
After a six-hour long surgery, Dr Maichand, with the help of oncologist, removed the tumour and implanted an artificial femur made of titanium which saved the leg of the patient Prem and gave him a new lease of life.
The doctor also replaced the hip and knee joints of the patient.
‘’It is a very rare and complex surgery and is done at very few centres across the globe. It needs a combination of a specialist joint replacement surgeon and an experienced oncologist,’’ Dr Maichand said.
The patient is now leading a normal life, the surgeon said.
Dr Maichand said that usually this kind of surgery costs around `10-12 lakhs as the artificial femur has to be imported.
But, the doctor designed and manufactured the artificial femur locally and reduced the cost to `2.5 lakhs only.
Dr Maichand claimed it the first such surgery in north India. At the international level, any joint replacement surgeon has done not more than four or five surgeries of this kind, he said.
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