The Hindu Business Line : Rare surgeries performed by KIMS

Mr Radha Ramana Murthy, a 51-year-old man, crippled for the past four years with rheumatoid arthritis on his joints, has slowly started walking without a walker.

Behind the transformation in the lives of these two is a team of doctors from the Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). The doctors performed rare surgeries to set right the ailments.

Yagnesh continued his studies even as he battled three cycles of cancer drugs and surgery to get rid of cancerous cells. A custom-made medical grade steel implant was used to replacehis cancer afflicted left thigh bone.

Dr R.V. Rao, Dr A.V. Guruva Reddy and Dr Satish Reddy claimed that this was the first time in the country that a fourth stage osteosarcoma affected patient was successfully treated with limb salvage surgery.

While the Adyar Hospital conducted the first such surgical procedure in 1987 and the Hyderabad-based Kamineni Hospital in 1997, they were not advanced stage cancer manifestations.

In case of Yagnesh, the cancer in the left thigh bone surfaced in the secondary stage in the lungs and was considered incurable. However, he responded well to surgery and chemotherapy and can walk now. He will be on a six months follow-up.

While the exact cause for osteosarcomas is not known, radiation and genetic factors play a major role. Incidence in Travancore, the uranium-rich area of Kerala, has given credence to the radiation exposure theory. The cure rate is 70 per cent, and in stage four it falls to 20 per cent, said Dr Rao.

Mr Radha Ramana Murthy had to quit his job in Mumbai due to crippling arthritis. The KIMS doctors performed a surgery to replace four joints on his left knee, left hip, right knee and right hip in just four days to get him back on feet.

Rheumatoid arthritis, which was plaguing him, is an auto-immune disease. It affects thousand and has no cure. The KIMS doctors said they did the surgeries for just Rs 4 lakh, whereas it costs Rs 10 lakh elsewhere.

The costs were high because the USFDA approved implants, which have to be imported, cost more than Rs 80,000, Dr Guruva Reddy told newspersons. To bring down the costs and help patients, the hospital plans to start a charity trust, he said.

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