SSKM Hosp conducts rotationplasty surgery on 14-yr-old cancer patient

kolkata: SSKM Hospital has carried out rotationplasty on a 14-year-old cancer patient giving a new lease of life to the teenager who was brought here in Kolkata from Murshidabad. Rotationplasty, a usual surgery under which the doctors save the life of a patient by removing his/her knee joint infected with cancer and converting the ankle into a knee.

Patient's father took him to the SSKM and consulted doctors at the orthopedic outpatient department at the SSKM. The doctors at the hospital performed an X-ray on his left leg. After the report came in, the doctors told the patient's family that a surgery must be carried out.

The patient was admitted to the orthopedic department and two chemotherapies were conducted on the patient before performing the critical surgery that lasted for more than 5 hours.

According to the doctors, the surgery is carried on a cancer patient when the disease is spread from a tumour in the joints of bones in the leg or hand. The surgery was carried out by a team of doctors headed by the head of the orthopedic department Dr Mukul Bhattacharya.

A senior official from SSKM said that it was the first operation by any government hospital in the state.

The surgery is identified as 'rotationplasty' where the ankle joint substitutes as a knee joint after a 180 degree turn. It's a middle path between saving the limbs and amputation.