Hyderabad, 23rd January, 2013: Apollo Health City today announced the performing of a revolutionary Minimally Invasive Knee Replacement (Resurface) Surgery (MIKRS) using OrthoGlide Medial Knee system. This surgery was successfully performed for the first time in Andhra Pradesh by a team of orthopaedic surgeons led by Dr. Prabhat Lakkireddi, Consultant Keyhole and Minimally Invasive Orthopaedic Surgeon. The team performed a bilateral (on both the knees) OrthoGlide knee surgery for the first in India.
The most common cause of knee pain is Arthritis where the joint lining called cartilage is damaged due to wear and tear causing inflammation and pain. In India 50% of the general population develops arthritis during their lifetime and is the second largest ailment after diabetes.
OrthoGlide, a metallic, wedge-shaped device is a novel implant that replaces worn cartilage inside the knee. It offers patients a less invasive alternative to total knee replacement. This device is inserted into the knee through a 5 to 7 cm incision, which relieves pressure, restores proper joint alignment, redistribute the load more evenly and increases stability.
The surgery using OrthoGlide knee implant was performed on a 45 year old lady with severe pain in both the knees for the past 3 years. The path breaking surgery took under an hour for each knee leaving all the joint bones naturally and virtually untouched with almost no blood loss, no bone loss and no cement. After the surgery the patient had minimal pain and started walking the following day.
This surgery promises a less expensive and easy path of regaining normal life style functions, it definitely offers a new ray of hope to active and young patients who are worried about major surgery and prolonged post–op rehabilitation to deal with Knee Arthritis, says Dr. Prabhat Lakkireddi, who was trained in London for 10 years and recently joined Apollo Health City.
The Major advantages of this surgery over standard Total Knee Replacement includes its affordable cost and early rehabilitation which helps patients to return to their normal routine and life style expeditiously. It allows patient to squat and seat cross – legged, an important part of our daily lives in our Indian Culture and which is not possible with the conventional knee replacement surgery. Above all OrthoGlide allows delay of total knee replacement until patients are older and less likely to require a second knee replacement.
As against a Total Knee Replacement, Minimally Invasive Knee Replacement (Resurface) Surgery involves 2 inches incision, no cutting of the natural bone, the joint is left intact, no cutting of the muscle therefore no bleeding, less painful, low infection, less complications, fast recovery, can walk the same day, the surgery can be performed as a day care surgery therefore doesn’t require hospitalization and cost would ranges between Rs 1.1 to 1.2 lakhs, which would come down further with mass utilization of the device. This surgery has the approval of the FDA. While the Total Knee Replacement is a major surgery involving an incision of 6-8 inches, around half a litre blood loss, bone has to be cut, needs usage of bone cement, risk of infection is high, hospitalization of 5 to 10 days and long period of rehabilitation.
This surgery can be opted after conservative oral medical treatments fail. ‘MIKRS’ offers a cost effective treatment for early and moderate arthritis of the knee joint at virtually half the cost of Total Knee Replacements - which is considered to be the last option for the disease in advance stages with badly degenerated joints.
