A man suffering from haemophilia underwent a bilateral knee replacement surgery at a private hospital here recently. He is said to have recovered well and was discharged on January 12.
The patient, Chikanna, 47, was suffering from severe pain in both his knees. His severe condition of haemophilia, a genetic disorder that leads to profuse and unstoppable bleeding along with poor blood clotting following any injury, made this bilateral knee replacement a rare surgery.
Addressing presspersons here, Narayan Hulse, Additional Director, Orthopaedics, Fortis Hospitals, Bannerghatta said that owing to haemophilia, the patient was prone to multiple joint bleeds or hemarthrosis since birth. With recurrent hemarthrosis of knees, it caused joint degeneration or haemophilia c arthropathy. “Generally, the knee replacement surgery is performed on people above the age of 60, but in this case, owing to repetitive bleeding in the joint, his joints were damaged at an early age and showed severe disabilities. The only sensible way to help him was to conduct a knee replacement,” he said.
“To normalise the blood clotting factors, we performed a clotting factor replacement therapy (infusing artificial blood factor into the veins) before the surgery,” Dr. Hulse explained.
There are about 17,000 haemophilia patients in India, of which 2,500 are in Karnataka.
