BENGALURU: A 13-year-old boy from Kolkata, who was bedridden for the last two months and in severe pain, was on the verge of losing his left limb to amputation because of bone cancer. Osteosarcoma is one of the most common primary malignant bone cancers among children and young adolescents, accounting for 5 per cent of all paediatric malignancy. However, in the boy’s case, the cancer was aggressive and the bone was in a far worse condition than seen usually.
“He came in with a swelling in the lower thigh. The cancer had eaten up three-fourths of the femur bone. We had warned the parents of a fracture and just before chemotherapy began, the bone snapped. We thought the outcome would not be good. In 90-95 per cent of cases we save the limb, but here it was alarming and we felt we may have to amputate,” said Dr Srimanth B S, orthopaedic and onco-surgery consultant at Manipal Hospitals.
To doctors’ surprise, he responded to chemotherapy and the cancer did not spread. Because of the delay in bringing the child to doctors, a trend they are observing in cases of bone cancer patients since the pandemic began, none of usual techniques of prosthesis or recycling of the bone could be used to save the limb. “We innovated an inexpensive reconstruction that was done using a combination of nail, plate, screws and cement that joined the bone of the boy’s hip and knee bone. It was the need of the hour. He walked the very next day and it was rewarding for us.
The surgery took place a month ago and follow-up sessions with physiotherapy are on,” Dr Srimanth said, adding that the boy is on his feet but uses an assistive device now, which will not be required 6-8 weeks from date of surgery. The hospital said the boy’s case is a good example. If consulted earlier, 3-4 months of confinement to bed, movement restrictions, and fracture with pain and discomfort could have been avoided.
