BHUBANESWAR: AIIMS-Bhubaneswar conducted the first total jaw joint replacement surgery on a 19-year-old tribal girl from Western Odisha. The girl was suffering from temporomandibular joint (TMJ) ankylosis since long.
After the three-hour-long procedure by a team of three surgeons, the girl can now open her mouth properly after a decade. TMJ ankylosis is a rare condition in which the lower jaw is found fused with skull base.
The girl, a native of Rajgangpur area in Sundargarh district had arrived at AIIMS in the first week this month after not getting proper treatment in several other hospitals her family consulted.
A team of doctors comprising Maxillofacial surgeon Dr Kiran Kumar Boyina, Plastic surgeon Dr Ritesh Panda from the department of Trauma and Emergency and Maxillofacial surgeon Dr Saubhik Dasukil from the department of Dentistry successfully performed the surgery by removing the fused bone along the joints. “The girl had an ear infection ten years back, due to which her mouth opening gradually decreased to nil mouth opening,” said Dr Boyina.
The artificial joint replacement was conducted using a titanium implant. While the hospitalisation and surgical procedure were done free of cost, the implant cost of around `1 lakh (for single joint) was covered under Biju Swathya Kalyana Yojana (BSKY).
Veer Sai’s statue to be unveiled at airport today
Jharsuguda: A life-size statue of Veer Surendra Sai will be unveiled in front of Jharsuguda airport, named after the freedom fighter, on the occasion of his 113th birth anniversary on Saturday. Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi and Minister Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan will inaugurate the statue. The Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) is executing installation of the statue. Health Minister Naba Kishore Das, Bargarh MP Suresh Pujari, Brajrajnagar MLA Kishore Mohanty and MCL CMD Prabhat Sinha will also be present at Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Airport on the occasion. Joshi and Sinha will attend the unveiling event virtually.