City, a hub of medical marvels

Medical tourism is a growing sector in India. India’s medical tourism sector is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 30%, making it a $2 billion industry by 2015. While, Chennai has been termed as India's health capital, Hyderabad surely seems to be giving that city a run for its money. This year, the city’s Hospitals have been home for remarkable rare surgeries, each one turning out to be a marvel in the field of health care. We feature some of those rare surgeries which highlights Hyderabad as a hub for innovative medical practices

Heart Transplant

A Heart Transplant was performed at the Visakhapatnam Care Hospital by a team of cardiothoracic surgeons of Care Banjara in Hyderabad. The surgery involved the transplantation of a brain-dead male patient’s heart to 28-year-old Rafi who suffered from end stage heart failure. There were three challenges for the doctors before the transplant. One, the patient’s blood group should match with the donor. Two, the patient should be suitable for heart transplantation and three, the team of cardiothoracic surgeons from the hospital had to air lift the patient to Vizag. The doctors also had to take into account that the transplantation of the heart from the donor to the recipient should be done within six hours to avoid failure of transplantation. Even with so many challenges, the doctor ensured a successful rare surgery.

Rare Knee Surgery

Bilateral Oxford Unicondylar Knee Replacement, a distinctive knee replacement surgery was performed successfully on a 45-year- old woman at Nova Specialty Surgery Hospital on February 16. The hospital said this kind of surgery was fruitfully performed for the first time in the state. In Unicondylar Knee Replacement, a very small part (almost 20 per cent of original knee surface) of the worn off knee would be replaced and most of the original knee surface would be preserved. The advantage of this technique is that when the patient grows older, they can undergo total replacement protectively. In this particular case, if the doctors had gone for total knee replacement on the patient presently, her condition would have detiorated with age.

Myopathic Scoliosis

Doctors at Kamineni Hospital gave a new lease of life to a 14-year-old girl, Pratibha Reddy, who was suffering from serious Myopathic Scoliosis for five years. The patient suffered from a rare muscle disorder of congenital myopathy. For the surgery, a special medicine, Dantrolene was procured to counter high fever. Along with it an alternative anaesthetic technique coupled with the latest gadget motor, which is potential for nerves and muscle functioning, was used for the surgery to successfully correct spinal deformity.

Complex cardiac procedure

A rare and complex cardiac procedure was conducted successfully on an 82-year-old Kenyan, Abdulla Shareef by a team from Sunshine Hospitals. It took three hours to finish the surgery. The patient was suffering from a rare cardiac disease where he was inflicted with severe heart pumping dysfunction and two of his major blood vessels in his heart were blocked. Besides this, he had calcium deposition all over the occluded arteries. Because of the complex nature of his disease, doctors in Mumbai refused to take up his case. Abdulla Shareef and his family then landed in Hyderabad and approached the doctors at Sunshine Hospitals. A by-pass surgery was rejected as the patient was too old. The cardiac experts after a lot of deliberations treated Abdullah with percutaneous angioplasty after removing calcium (boney) deposition by a unique technique called Rotablation. They shaved the bone and inserted the stents in the patient. Within two months, the blood flow of his vessels improved.

Total Shoulder Replacement Surgery

The state’s first ever total shoulder replacement surgery was performed successfully in Kamineni Hospitals, LB nagar on January 2. The orthopedics conducted the surgery on a 50-year-old patient. The doctors said that it was a new chapter in treating patients with shoulder joint problems. The total shoulder replacement is a surgical procedure in which all parts of shoulder joint are replaced by a prosthetic implant. The surgery is conducted to relieve arthritic pain or fix severe physical joint damage and trauma.

Successful surgery with multiple complications

The doctors’ at the Osmania General Hospital gave a new lease of life to a patient Durgesh, who was severely injured in a road accident. Durgesh’s abdomen was critically injured when he was admitted. The doctors cleaned his abdomen and conducted a surgery. But the very next day he was suffering from severe sepsis and developed breathing difficulties. The doctors then put him on ventilator in RICU for two months. He was subjected to multiple stages of surgeries owing to his complications. His intestines were damaged acutely. His weaning health also became a challenge for the doctors as they need to supply oxygen to the patient for 30 days. Meanwhile, the patient started suffering from severe anemia. Blood also started clotting in his chest due to the severe injury. The doctors then corrected the problem by performing chest drain procedure to Durgesh. They then discharged the patient with a metal tracheotomy tube and colostomy. After his abdominal wounds were healed, the tracheotomy tube and colostomy were removed which set his system upright.

Pacemaker implanted to one-year-old

One-year-old Shiva got a new lease of life after undergoing pacemaker implantation at the Sunshine Heart Institute, Hyderabad. Shiva was suffering from congenital heart block. “Implanting a pacemaker to a one-year-old kid is of course a challenging task and the medical procedure is not as simple as in the case of the adults”, said the leader of the surgery team. Shiva experienced recurrent loss of consciousness, inability to feed, lack of growth for several months. During checkups, it was diagnosed that the boy had complete heart block. Ideally children at his age, have a heart rate of 110-120 beats per minute. But in the case of Shiva, it was 35 beats per minute which restricted of growth of the boy. A pacemaker was decided as the best solution for treatment. Shiva’s heart was opened and the pacemaker was placed.

Surgery for Type-2 Diabetes also

Dr Surendra Ugale is the only diabetes laparoscopic surgeon in Andhra Pradesh. Currently surgery for Type-2 diabetes is performed in only six places across the world and that too only by 8 people. Dr Ugale is one among them who performed the surgery on 68-year-old Madhava Reddy.

“The surgery is meant for patients with progressive diabetes who are prone to kidney, heart nerves and pancreas failure. The patients can say good bye to their medications after this surgery. Post surgery, after a few months, the patients can eat everything including sweets. We are performing this surgery to the people between the age group of 25 to 75 years.”

Congenital Absence of Portal Vein

A rarest of the rare medical procedure was performed by a three member team of doctors at Sunshine Hospitals. “It is a congenital disease. The whole procedure is called Congenital Absence of Portal Vein. The patient faced a rare anomaly where the main portal vein which connects with the liver was absent in her body by birth and blood was bypassing the liver which led to low platelets and blood counts in her body. The surgery was planned meticulously as any letup would result in the death of the patient.” explained Dr Anandkumar.

“I conducted a special surgery to maintain the intestinal blood flow to heart by bypassing a specialised shunt called spleen adrenal shunt. Very few doctors in our country can perform this. It’s a medically challenging task. I decided to implant artificial shunt in her body. I thought of using a thin vein as shunt which comes virtually from the adrenal gland. The only option that was left to us was shunt operation. We did it. As long as the liver works well there is no danger to her life” the doctor added.

Hydatid Cyst surgery

Not just the private Hospitals, even the Osmania General Hospital performed a rare hydatid cyst surgery. Hydatid cyst is a rare disease which occurs due to lack of personal hygiene and intake of contaminated water and food. The disease is also transmitted through pet animals. The patient, Obulesh, was suffering from the disease for the last 30 years. His intestines, kidney and lungs were damaged when he approached the hospital. The cyst spread from his lungs to abdomen. The patient experienced breathlessness and could not eat food properly. The surgery was conducted successfully by opening his chest where two liters of pus was removed and another liter was removed from his abdomen. The doctors performed this herculean surgery for almost seven hours.