Elderly woman undergoes hip revision surgery at KGMU

Lucknow, March 28 (IANS) Doctors at the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) have successfully conducted a hip revision surgery on an 85-year-old woman.

The patient had undergone surgery in her left hip 35 years ago during which the plate inserted was fixed with simple screws. The old plate, which had bone growth over it, needed to be removed for replacement.

Professor Narendra Singh Kushwaha, a senior faculty at the department of orthopaedic surgery at KGMU, who led the team of doctors, said, “These days hexagonal screwdrivers are used to fix or take out a plate inserted in the bone during hip replacement. Earlier it was done with the help of simple screwdrivers as the screws used were also simple. We have only read in books about simple screws used for hip replacement.”

“We had to get simple screwdrivers from the market to remove the wainwright osteotomy plate provided to her broken hip joint 35 years ago during her first hip replacement surgery. Also removing the bone formation from over the plate also took time. These complications made her run from one hospital to another as doctors refused to operate on her in view of the complications,” said Prof Kushwaha.

The woman was operated on five days ago and was now able to walk on her own, the doctor said, adding that she would be discharged from the hospital soon.