Procedure lets arthritic elderly patients regain their limb functions

Procedure is minimally invasive aiding faster recovery for patients

On Sunday, a 75-year-old woman walked upright after many years, thanks to a series of procedures she underwent in a city hospital.

The septuagenarian from Kerala, who suffered from knock-knees, was brought to the hospital by her relatives. “She had difficulty in walking. She had broken her right hip in a fall at a young age that had not been treated. She used to manage with the problem. But over the years, she had developed ‘wandering acetabulum’ where the cup bone (acetabulum) in the hip was deformed,” said C. Lenin, orthopaedic surgeon and founder of Ortho Indie Hospital.

Her relatives were initially hesitant as she had a rare blood group, AB negative. With Dr. Lenin’s assurance, four days after knee replacement she underwent hip replacement. “We hardly transfused one unit of blood for both knee surgeries and one unit for hip surgery. It was necessary as her pre-operative haemoglobin count was only 10. We could have avoided even this had it been higher,” Dr. Lenin said.

Some weeks ago, he treated a 93-year-old woman who broke her left hip in a fall, caused by arthritic deformed right knee. She postponed knee replacement but lost her balance and suffered a hip fracture subsequently. Six months prior to the fall, she was reluctant to consider surgery. “She was made to stand and walk the same day of the surgery. She was discharged on the third day,” Dr. Lenin said. “She climbed down 22 steps from her apartment to come to the hospital for suture removal 10 days after the surgery,” he added.

Similarly, a 75-year-old woman from Adyar was referred to him after she fractured the neck of the femur in a fall. “We did a hip replacement for her and tried to make her stand and walk. But her knee was so bad that she could not stand, let alone walk,” Dr. Lenin recalled.

Since patients were hesitant to consider back-to-back surgeries, he suggested that she return after she had healed from the hip procedure. But the family agreed to a second procedure to be done within four days and both her knees were operated on. She could walk the same day. “She co-operated with the rehab and within 15 days she could resume her activities,” he added.