Rare surgery for bone cancer performed

MANGALURU: Orthopaedic oncology team of city’s Indiana Hospital and Heart Institute successfully saved the upper limb of a 7-year-old diagnosed with bone cancer using a Japanese medical procedure.
The team surgically removed entire arm bone and shoulder and destroyed the tumour cells outside the body using liquid nitrogen at -194ºC (cryotherapy) before reattaching it back to the patient.
The team headed by paediatric oncologist Navaneeth S Kamath initially subjected him to chemotherapy for 10 weeks. The procedure was carried out on April 19 as a case of ‘semi-emergency’ as the high grade osteosarcoma (bone cancer) that had affected child’s entire arm bone could spread. The child has recovered without any complication after the 10-hour long surgery.
Dr Navaneeth said such complicated limb salvaging onco surgeries usually are performed only in larger cities due to lack of dedicated orthopaedic oncology surgical services. Instead of removing entire limb — the common method of treating this disease resulting in poor quality of life for the patient — the newly established department of orthopaedic oncology at the hospital came up with this safe and complex limb salvage surgery, Dr Navaneeth added.
Dr Jalaluddeen, senior orthopaedic surgeon, part of the operating team said the procedure has made the coastal city on the map of tertiary medical hubs in country where rare bone and soft tissue tumour surgeries are performed. Karnataka has just three specialist paediatric oncologists and two are in Bengaluru, he said. Dr Harramb Mittal, Dr Vasudev Bhat, Dr Kalashekar, Dr Nikhil MP and Dr Harish BC were also part of the operating team.