Bengaluru: A 51-year-old man from Iraq got a new lease of life after he underwent a successful rare knee surgery in a city hospital. City doctors performed a rotating hinge knee surgery, which has an incidence rate of one in 1000 knee transplants.
Husien Jaber (name changed) was on a wheelchair for more than two years and had lost hope of standing on his own. He could not bend his knee due to failed knee replacement surgeries and it had also got infected.
“I was very depressed. The knee pain was unbearable and I was unable to walk even a single step,” said Husien.
Dr Ravichandran Kelkar, Senior Orthopedist, Columbia Asia Hospital Hebbal said, “When he came to the hospital; he was on a wheelchair with a severe knee infection called MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), the knee implant was severely infected and in an urgent need of a complex knee surgery. His condition was very serious with severe knee pain, and the implant had become so loose that even taking a few steps resulted in bone searing pain.”
A two-stage revision was performed during the surgery. In the first stage involved removal of infected knee implant and insertion of antibiotic spacer cement in the knee joint to control infection was done along with providing IV antibiotics which took 21 days.
For the second stage, replacement of knee implant was carried out and surgery was executed after ensuring that the knee infection was controlled.
Dr Kelkar also said that the patient was not sure about regaining his ability to walk on his own. “Post-surgery, as he started to recover, we performed the dual surgery successfully, enabling him to walk and bend his knee normally,” he added.
“I had given up hope after the two failed transplant attempts. But now that there is a new life waiting for me, I am happy that I will be able to walk all by myself. I am thankful to the doctors for helping me return to normal life,” Husien said.
