THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sancheti Joint Replacement Centre, Pune, and SP Fort Hospital in the city jointly organised an arthroplasty workshop on ‘Total Knee Replacement; Basic Concepts and Surgical Techniques’ here on Sunday.
The workshop, led by Dr Parag Sancheti, professor and chairman of Sancheti Institute for Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, featured live surgical demonstrations and interactive discussions on various aspects of Total Knee Replacement (TKR) surgery.
According to Sancheti, TKR has become less expensive with the use of Indus prosthesis - a knee joint developed at the Sancheti Institute. “Till recently, the prostheses that were available for TKA were imported. The problem with them was that they were designed to suite the bony architecture of westerners. They were very expensive also,’’ Sancheti told media persons here the other day.
The ‘Indus knee’ is available in various sizes suitable for Indians. The posterior-stabilised tricondylar design allows greater knee bending and enables the patient to squat or sit cross-legged after the surgery. Since it is indigenously manufactured, it costs only around Rs 30,000 - around one third of the imported prosthesis, Dr Sancheti said.
“Our idea is to popularise cost-effective knee replacement surgery in the State,’’ said Dr Kailas Vishwanath, who has successfully conducted around 20 such surgeries.
It is this success rate that has prompted the hospital to extend the benefit to more people.
trivandrum@epmltd.com