Ninety-four year old Nasiruddin had little hope of walking again after an injury that he sustained on June 22 during his morning walk. He injured his right hip with a fractured neck of the thigh bone. At this age, he had little hope of recovering, but a successful medical intervention by doctors at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital has helped him walk again.
He was operated for Total Hip Arthoplasty in the last week on June and is now in good health. Speaking about the procedure, Dr. Rajeev K. Sharma, senior consultant orthopaedics and joint replacement surgeon, said: “When the patient came to us, he had great pain in right hip and was unable to stand and walk. We performed some tests and found out that it was a case of fracture neck of femur with gross osteoporosis. If such a patient is not operated and made to walk soon, the life of patient is at serious risk because of strong possibility of chest infection, urinary infection and bed sores.’’
After examining the patient, doctors here decided to perform unilateral total hip replacement.
In this procedure, the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant. This uncemented prosthesis has a fine mesh of holes on the surface area that touches the bone. The mesh allows the bone to grow into it and becomes a part of the bone. If fixation is done well, the patient can walk with support within a few days.
Challenges of surgeryExplaining the challenges of the surgery on such an old patient with weak bones and associated comorbidities, Dr. Sharma said: “Surgery was very challenging given that he was a very elderly man and had other problems like extremely fragile bones and weak muscles. During the course of pre-operative check-up, all necessary investigations were done. Physician anaesthetics and orthopaedic team assessed the patient and the patient underwent right Total Hip Arthroplasty on June 24.”
Mr. Nasiruddin said: “I have gone through immense pain but am feeling much better now.”
