– a one-of-a kind initiative to support people suffering from arthritis & give them an option for better quality of life”

Arthritis has not deterred their spirit to enjoy life, they are enthusiastic, motivated and all set to prove that life begins at 60. Witnessing the advancements in Bone & Joint care, Fortis Hospitals Anandapur today announced a “Patient Support Group” – a one of a kind initiative to support people who are suffering from arthritis. 30 senior citizens who have undergone joint replacement surgeries in the recent past showcased their zest for life by walking the ramp.

Speaking on the occasion Mrs. Richa Debgupta, Facility Director, Fortis Hospitals, Anandapur said, “Sometimes when everything else fails, hearing it from the horse’s mouth might be more convincing. The Patient Support Group is all about hearing it from the individuals and more importantly, who were suffering from the long standing arthritis pain and how making the choice of surgery has changed their lives for the better.”

“This platform will provide an opportunity for the people who have undergone joint replacement surgery to share their experiences and encourage having a pain free life to others who are suffering from arthritis.  The patient driven initiative, aimed at increasing awareness will give proper support and guidance to both pre-operative and post-operative patients about the benefits of choosing joint replacement surgery and how it can improve the quality of life of an individual” added Richa Debgupta.

Encouraging the spirited participants’ eminent actor Prosenjit Chatterjee said “It is indeed an inspiration to see such vigour and life in these people. The enthusiasm displayed by each one of the participants testifies the quality of life they are leading after their surgeries and this initiative will motivate many more to lead a pain free life.  I congratulate the team and Fortis for putting together such a novel effort.”

Arthritis is a common problem across India and it can affect anyone. Arthritis is not only found in the elderly, it can strike at any age. Chronic joint pain from arthritis interferes with daily activities, such as walking, exercise, performing daily chores etc. The pain makes body postures like folding legs, squatting, very difficult. Arthritis is not a killer, but a definite crippling disease, which now has good curative options.

According to Dr. Ronen Roy, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Fortis Hospitals “Knee replacement is generally reserved for patients who have tried all of the other treatments and are still left with significant pain during normal activities. The participants of this Fortis Walk the Talk show are living examples that the joint replacement surgery aims to relieve pain, restore independence, makes you return to work and other daily activities and one can lead an active normal life.”

“Pain and limited movement from bone, joint, and muscle problems can interfere in the daily life and have a long-term impact if not corrected quickly and properly. This initiative will serve as a platform for spirited individuals who have undergone joint replacement surgeries to come together for personal bonding and work towards providing reassurance, motivation, inspiration, support and counseling to arthritis patients”, added Dr. Rakesh Rajput, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Fortis Hospitals.

“Joint Replacement Surgeries have evolved over the years and newer techniques are introduced to offer patient friendly treatment. With better clinical expertise and advanced treatment option people can opt for a pain free life. Joint Replacement Surgery has helped relieve the pain and suffering of plenty of people affected by advanced arthritis” said Dr. Debasis Chakravarty, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Fortis Hospitals.

“Post a joint replacement surgery people can resume to their normal course of life and perform their daily activities. An average elderly after 3 to 6 months of surgery can walk, squat, do recreational sports like swimming, golfing, doubles tennis, cycling and a woman can get back to their routine kitchen and household activities” explained Dr. Ujjwal Debnath, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Fortis Hospitals.

Setting yet another milestone in orthopedic surgery, a team of specialists at Fortis Hospitals, Kalyan ,Mumbai led by Dr. Aashish Arbat, Arthoscopic & Joint Replacement Surgeon, corrected a 3 times failed hip of a 49 year old man and put him back on his feet.

Patient Mr Tanaji Palekar, age 49, had a severe fall April 2007 while boarding the bus and fractured his left hip. He was immediately taken to nearby Hospital in Kalyan where implant was used to fix the joint. Post surgery within 3 months he started experiencing severe pain in his left hip and had to consult the doctor. Doctor advised him to undergo a repeat surgery.

A barber by profession working in Kalyan,Mumbai  his economic condition made the second surgery unaffordable for him. “I decided to wait for a few years but my profession demanded constant standing for hours which made the pain unbearable. I had no option but to undergo a second surgery.” He underwent second hip replacement surgery at another hospital in Kalyan. His implant was replaced and bone grafting was done. But even after the second surgery his pain did not reduce.

“Since the past 5 year I have been experiencing difficulty in walking due to continuous pain in my left hip and it was affecting my job. These surgeries were not proving beneficial for me and were creating a hole in my pocket. But I had no option but to consult one more orthopedic doctor so that I could be relieved of the pain and can start working to earn my livelihood.”

Mr Palkar then consulted an orthopedic doctor at a hospital in Mumbai who after referring to his reports said that one more hip replacement surgery won’t be beneficial for him. Mr. Palkar underwent a 3rd surgery where the doctors removed the previous implant which had loosened and left him without replacing with a new implant. This left Palkar in a crippled and painful condition.

“Having undergone three surgeries already and getting to know that one more surgery won’t be beneficial I lost hope of being cured. I thought a fourth correction could never be performed on my hip and I will have to lead a challenged life for the rest of my years.”

According To Dr Aashish Arbat,  They decided to  look for an  evidence based decision to put an American Hip replacement system which was uncemented type (cemented and uncemented are types of Hip replacement systems, Uncemented hip implants have special coating where bone grows on the implant and increases its durability even for life sometimes, but is difficult to do the surgical procedure technically”

Post Surgery the patient  was able to move his hip right for the first time in 5 years.  Says Mr Tanaji Palekar

Post surgery I was able to stand on day 2 and was sent home walking on day 4. I resumed my work later. Dr Arbat kept me on rehabilitation for 4 weeks and closely monitored me for some time until he was sure that my soft tissues are strong enough to make me run and cycle in the future.”

Dr. Arbat is very optimistic that the patient will lead a normal life and will not require another revision in his lifetime.

“My utmost gratitude to Dr. Arbat and the team at Fortis Hospitals for whom I am able to stand in front of you all and have a motivation to lead a healthy life ahead”, added Mr Tanaji.

A team of Orthopedic Surgeons at Fortis Hospitals, Mulund led by Dr. Sachin Bhonsle, Consultant Orthopedic and Joint Replacement Surgeon, performed a complicated hip revision surgery on a 45 year old man who had a three times failed hip surgery in the previously.

Patient Mr. Vijay Joshi, age 45, underwent left hip surgery in mid 90’s. During surgery his blood vessels got severely damaged resulting into avascular necrosis which made hip replacement a necessity. (Avascular Necrosis is a disease resulting from the temporary or permanent loss of the blood supply to an area of bone. Without blood, the bone tissue dies and the bone collapses and the joint becomes arthritric).

He underwent first hip replacement in 1998. A year later he got severe hip infection due to which doctors had to perform a second hip replacement on him in 1999. The second hip worked for 4-5 yrs, but it thereby loosened out leaving his hip with severe pain.

“This case is a fine example of a very complicated hip replacement operation. Mr. Joshi’s hip had had become very fragile and brittle with a huge amount of scarring due to three previous operations in 10-15 years and needed high degree of accuracy & meticulous asepsis. I had to remove existing hip replacement as well as plates and screws already in the bone and then carefully position a brand new hip joint. It was highly challenging to perform a fourth revision without harming the bone any further and ensure we give the best result in long term to avoid further revision,” said Dr. Sachin Bhonsle

“Having undergone three surgeries before (one regular surgery and two hip replacements), I thought that a fourth correction could never be performed on my hip and I will have to lead a challenged life for the rest of my years. However, I did not lose hope,” said Mr. Vijay Joshi.

“I realized that the real reason for my misery has been a lack of treatment at the hands of right experts. Since my hip had become very fragile and vulnerable, I realized that I can no longer take a chance and will consult the best medical centre with proven expertise in the area of hips. This led me to come to Fortis Hospitals, which had a proven centre of excellence for joints. I consulted Dr. Sachin Bhonsle at the hospital, who had the experience of doing some complicated hip replacement surgeries with finesse.”

The surgery was successful with an uneventful recovery and patient was discharged after few days. Dr. Bhonsle is very optimistic that the patient will lead a normal life and will not require another revision in his lifetime.

For any further queries, media please contact:

Fortis Hospitals Ushers In the Latest Technology in Knee Replacement Surgery

Case Story60- old man suffering from degenerative disease of the knee
Brought to Fortis Hospitals with complications of osteoarthritis , underwent East India’s first Custom Fit Knee Replacement Surgery

Patient was discharged within five days of the knee replacement operation

Benefits of Custom Fit Knee Replacement Surgery

• Patients started walking normally within a fortnight, unlike the usual 6-8 weeks required before resuming normal activities in the conventional surgery Some Other Benefits of   Custom Fit Knee

• Less soft tissue damage
• Variation in anatomy easily addressed
• Surgical insertions 10-11cms (minimal invasive surgery)
• Lesser operative time (60 min)
• Reduced infection rate
• Better life span of the processes because of the accurate fit and alignment
• Surgeon friendly instrumentation hence less loss of bone
• Patients started walking normally within a fortnight, unlike the usual 6-8 weeks required before resuming normal activities in the conventional surgery

Ushering in the latest in Joint Replacement Surgery Fortis Hospitals Kolkata today announced Eastern India’s first ‘Custom Fit Knee Replacement Surgery’ performed on a patient with degenerative disease of the knee. Lead orthopedic surgeon Dr. Rakesh Rajput and his team at Fortis Hospitals Kolkata performed this revolutionary surgery by literally remodeling the anatomy of the patient’s knee and recreating or customizing a knee with the right kind of technology and expertise. The new custom fit knee replacement technology designs a perfect instrumentation system that matches the patient’s knee and ensures lesser pain, less tissue damage and faster mobilization.

Dr. Rakesh Rajput, Senior Orthopedic Surgeon, Fortis Hospitals, said, “The operation for knee replacement has been performed for the first time in Eastern India by using the custom fit knee replacement technology. This is indeed a medical breakthrough as this procedure is error free as the planning is done before the operations and likely to revolutionize the way knee replacement surgeries are performed in India. With this technology the outcome bar of knee replacement surgeries had been raised to a much greater level.  We are glad to be the first adapters of this technology.”

Mr. Faisal Siddique, General Manager Fortis Hospitals Kolkata said, “Fortis Hospitals has always been the frontrunner in performing complex surgeries using the latest technologies. Our ultimate objective is to ensure the best treatment for patients with better results. We are confident that going forward, we will continue to break new grounds in new medical technology and bring the best in super specialty treatment to India.”

“We were the first ones to perform Euro-Asia’s Custom Fit knee replacement and now we take pride in performing Eastern India’s first custom fit knee replacement. This testifies our commitment towards combining advanced technology and clinical expertise to offer quality care to our patients added Dr. Lloyd Nazareth, COO, Fortis Hospitals.

The difference that it makes to patients’ knee –

While conventional knee replacement surgeries retro-fit predetermined sizes of prosthetics on to the patients’ knee, this procedure is very different because it works on the principle that no two patients’ knees are similar. With this technology the patient’s knee is digitally recreated with 3D image mapping after taking into account, the bone structure, weight ratios, gender, age and even mechanical alignment. Based on this 3D model the customized knee is created. Something, that just fits them right. This technology ensures far greater accuracy and reduces the operation time by almost 40 % and also results in less loss of bone & tissues.

Faster Recoveries That Get Patients Back To Life Faster –

Right from diagnosis, Fortis Custom Fit Knee Replacement procedure aims to get patients back on their feet faster. It takes about 4 week duration to get the custom fit instrumentation and the doctor being ready with the perfect procedure, the incision is just about 4inches which itself minimizes the pain, infection, blood loss, and tissue damage are also reduced to a great extent. And specialized post-operative recovery procedure ensures that the patient achieves early and full mobility within days after his/her surgery.

Stand tall in 4 weeks

The instrumentation specific to the patient is ready for surgery in less than 4 weeks after the CT scan. Moreover, the alignment settings exclusive to the patients’ bone structure contained within the instrumentation enabling the patient to get back on his/her feet faster after the knee replacement procedure.

How Custom Fit Knee Works –

4 weeks. That’s the time we take to find the knee procedure complete with the instrumentation that fits you perfectly as opposed to the trial and error that you need to endure in the conventional procedure. Fast and convenient, it is a simple 4 step process.

Step 1: Understanding your knee

The process starts with a CT Scan of the whole leg from the hips to the ankle which is then used to create an advanced 3D image of the leg structure. The age, weight and gender are also taken into account, creating a complete patient imaging.
Step 2: Processing and planning

With the 3D plan of the leg structure in place, an anatomical model is created to determine the mechanical alignment – the basic philosophy on which the entire process rests. Virtual instrumentation is then done and the surgery is planned accordingly.

Step 3: Recreating the knee

Once the surgery is approved, the Custom Fit instruments are manufactured at state-of-the-art dedicated manufacturing centers. Even the individual patient name and data are etched on each unit to confirm identification during the surgery

Step 4: Fitting the knee

With the Custom Fit instrumentation in place, the knee bone is chiseled to perfection so that the prosthetics fit exactly without any requirement for later corrective surgeries. After a 60 minute surgery, the patient ill have the knee that fits you perfectly.
Case Details:

Mr. Hsieh Wei Tang, a 60-year-old business man running a Chinese restaurant in Kolkata, was diagnosed with osteoarthritis of right knee after pre-operative evaluation at Fortis Hospitals. He had severe knee pain and could not climb stairs without support. As his knee was swollen and straight he could not even squat. The custom fit knee replacement surgery was successfully performed on Hsieh Wei Tang by Dr. Rakesh Rajput, Senior Orthopedic Consultant and his team and the patient was discharged within 7 days.