Kyphosplasty of vertebra done first time in UP

Allahabad, Nov 30 (UNI) Kyphoplasty of vertebra has been performed successfully by a team of doctors at the Moti Lal Nehru Medical College in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Kyphosplasty is a minimally invasive surgical procedure used for treating vertebral fractures caused by osteoporosis.

Talking to newspersons here, Dr D C Srivastava from the Department of Orthopaedics of the college -- who headed the team of doctors said the surgery has been done successfully on a 65 year old patient Soorja Devi.

Dr Srivastava claimed it was a highly skilled and technical surgery, in which per cutaneousely by 5 cm skin incision, gallini-ky-phoplasty sleeve was negotiated into the centre of vertebral body under c-arm (flouroscopic vision).

The high rpm small burr was used to resect the affected bone from vertebra and resected part was sucked out through the same sleeve, then the gap in vertebral body was filled with bone cement or bonegraft taken from iliac crest, he informed.

He said ''this technique is absolutely non-traumatic, painless and can be done under local anaesthesia with sedation.'' Dr Srivastava said that this system is highly sophisticated and requires high technical skill, while a small mistake can lead to life threatening complications.

''Previously, for resection of tumour like myeloma, plasmacytoma hemangioma and secondaries from vertebal body was possible only through major surgery. For that, laprotomy or thoracotomy was required to reach vertebral body for resection of tumour and to repair it with bone graft or bone cement,'' he added.

All these were super major surgeries and usually 3 to 4 units of blood was required to operate on patient. The patient was usually advised three to four weeks bed rest.

''This advanced system produces almost no trauma and there is loss of only 20 to 30 ml of blood. The system costs roughly Rs 6,000 to 10,000,'' he added.

This is also very useful for repair of collapsed vertebra following trauma or osteoporosis in old age, he maintained.

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