Chandigarh, (Gurpreet) : A 60 year old female with severe knee rheumatoid arthritis has undergone a successful knee replacement surgery at Shalby Hospital, Mohali recently. Addressing a press conference at Chandigarh Press Club here on Saturday, Dr. Gagandeep Gupta, a senior Ortho Surgeon at Shalby Hospital, Mohali who performed the procedure informed that female was suffering from severe knee pain, swelling, deformity and limp in both knees from the past few years. Due to this she was unable to walk and chances of walking again after surgery were also very low.
Giving details of surgery, Dr. Gagandeep Gupta further informed that the female was experiencing pain in her both knees a few years back for which she kept on taking pain killers and doing physiotherapy. Later when the problem graved and she even started to face problems in walking. She had to be accompanied for her toilet needs too. She approached many hospitals where she was advised to go for surgery but with no surety of her walking normal after surgery.
Later she approached Dr. Gagandeep Gupta and he decided to go for surgery which was difficult as compared to normal knee replacement.
Patient was very fragile and had low hemoglobin levels; hence we took the decision of operating one knee at a time. Left knee was operated on first. Right knee was operated on 6 months later. As the patient had an old healed fracture on right leg, we had to correct leg deformity first by putting a plate in right leg. After 3 months, she has undergone knee replacement surgery on right knee. It was a very challenging surgery.
Dr. Gagandeep Gupta said that the knee joint was jammed and bones were stuck in each other. We had to use a rod (called stem) on both legs to offload the lower bone (called tibia), he informed.
After surgery, the female is perfectly fine and can walk without any pain. Talking about rheumatoid arthritis, Dr. Gagandeep informed it's an inflammatory form of arthritis. Women are more commonly affected than men . The bones start rubbing against each other which affect joint movement and eventually causing pain, swelling and deformity, Dr. Gagandeep informed.