Coimbatore: Operation T-20 on 87-year-old woman

Coimbatore: In a super-quickie surgery, an advanced hip operation was done in just 20 minutes on an 87-year-old woman ,with both cardiac and renal complications, at a hospital in the city.

The surgery turned out to be challenging because it had to performed swiftly within 20 minutes as any further delay would have turned fatal for the patient, resulting in a cardiac arrest right on the operating table, said Dr A Sakthivel, Orthopaedic Surgeon, KG Hospital. The advanced Dynamic Hip Screwing technique was used which is a pin hole procedure wherein the surgery for the fractured hip is done through a 1 cm incision.

Among the aged, it is important to make sure that the surgery is of a short span and the recovery is quicker and mobility faster as the elderly tend to develop bed sores and pneumonia that may sometimes even turn fatal. The octogenarian suffered a fall and had fractured her hip bone. The doctors in the other hospitals were hesitant because she had both heart and kidney related complications. Her heart was functioning only 20 per cent and her kidney had failed.

The bones of the aged are brittle because of low bone density and hence the bones lose strength. As a cast was not possible in the hip, a surgery was required to change the head of the femur and replace it with metal bone and socket. Hence the operation had to be completed in flat 20 minutes lest she develops a heart attack, the surgeon added.

Dr G Baktavatsalam, Chairman KG Hospital, said that the most common "disease" among elderly is not stroke or heart attack, but a fall. They fall due to instability, shrinking of the brain, dementia, unsatisfactory muscle tone or inadequacy in nutritious food. Several suffer inadequate sleep because they urinate often during nights.

They do not carry a walking stick nowadays and hence become very vulnerable to falls. While many come with head injuries that result in slow insidious bleeding around the brain, 80 per cent suffer a fracture. In case they have other age related complications, then the surgeon should ensure quick surgery and speedy recovery, the chairman added.