CHENNAI: Forget rock hard abs, imagine bones that feel like stones. That’s exactly what 46-year-old twin brothers Jayakumar and Vijayakumar were born with, owing to a genetic issue. Known as osteopetrosis (or marble bone disease), their bones become denser and have the same consistency as hard marble stone. Where osteoporosis and osteomalacia (more common bone conditions) make the bones go porous and soft, this makes them grow harder till there is no marrow space inside.
So it wasn’t an enviable task that Joint Replacement Surgeons Dr Arumugam S and Dr Sashidar were faced with, when one of the twins broke their hip bone last year. “With the bone being as dense as it is, a hip replacement isn’t quite the same process. When we drill, we need to use tungsten bits and even with those, I broke four drill bits while operating for the first time,” explained Dr Arumugam. Given that the bones don’t regrow like normal ones, the precision of the drilling is also difficult. “If the drilling had moved or gone off target, then the whole hip section might have shattered and made walking impossible,” he added. They got through that surgery successfully, hoping that the patient would not injure his bones again. Two weeks later, his twin brother came to the hospital having suffered a minor fall, even he required a hip replacement. “This time we were a little more prepared,” he said before adding, “I only broke one drill bit!” Unlike a normal hip replacement, surgeons had to work almost double the hours in the operation theatre to ensure the second brother did not lose part of his hip. “They had both had minor fractures before this, but thankfully we were able to complete the replacement successfully,” he added. The surgery was done at Bharathiraja Hospital.