Doctors at Chennai hospital perform complex hip surgery

CHENNAI: An auto-immune disorder that targeted her hip at the age of 26 and six surgeries that followed had left 46-year-old Prasitha (name changed) from Kerala in severe pain and deformity after limb shortening was done post a surgery.
When her hip infection recurred, she could not move around freely and perform her daily activities. However, the patient was determined to be independent, and she decided to undergo another surgery.Despite the challenges, doctors at Medway Medical Centre performed a hip replacement surgery on her, helping her return to her normal life and walk at ease.
The patient was suffering from severe limb shortening on her right leg which resulted in severe backache and instability while walking. She was refused surgery at hospitals in Kerala.
When she approached doctors at Medway Medical Centre recently, they saw that there were several challenges like hypertension, severe loss of bone in hip joint, deformity of thigh bone and severe immune-compromise.
“Despite these challenges, our aim was to give her a pain free, mobile, stable functioning hip joint while regaining leg length,” said consultant physician Dr T Palaniappan.
A team headed by orthopaedic surgeon Dr Vijay Vardhan Killampalli performed a surgery in which they replaced her hip with a customized implant in a procedure that lasted for six hours. “The patient had an uneventful recovery and has pain-free hip movements now,” said the doctor.