Underprivileged to get free spine surgery at SSKM

Kolkata: In a unique initiative to aid the underprivileged to get spine surgery done free of cost, the IPGMER & SSKM Hospital has collaborated with 'Operation Straight Spine Trust' to conduct difficult and complex spinal deformity surgeries in the hospital.

The SSKM Hospital on Saturday inaugurated the city's first spine deformity conference at the UCM building and a live spine deformity surgical workshop was also held. One of the main objectives of the programme is to update the doctors in the city with practical tips for managing pre and post-operative care of patients who have been suffering from complex spinal problems. The children often suffer from spinal related issues.

The main purpose of the tie-up is to provide charitable specialised spinal surgery for the underprivileged children and adults with spinal deformity. The 'Operation Straight Spine Trust' has expertise in this field. It was learnt that the trust will provide comprehensive medical and state-of-the-art surgical care to both the children and adults who cannot afford the treatment. Dr Ujjal Kanti Debnath, the organising secretary of the conference said: "The primary objective is to carry out spinal surgery for the underprivileged people. The whole process will be supervised by our international faculty of surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and paramedical staffers from USA, UK and Europe. We have a plan to conduct a surgery on 9 patients with a spinal deformity in a year here at the SSKM Hospital and we are happy to announce that it is completely charitable. In future, we will

try to reach out to more people who require a surgical intervention."

A recent survey says that a large number of people in India have been affected by an extremely high level of musculoskeletal deformity. Over 6 million people suffer from some type of physical deformity like congenital scoliosis and kyphosis, Idiopathic scoliosis, spina bifida, spondylolisthesis, tuberculosis, spondylodiscitis, post-traumatic deformity, cerebral palsy. Deformities can be a major source of emotional trauma for children. Around 80 per cent of the affected children belong to the lower socio-economic class.

Spinal deformity surgery involves complex procedures and it is only possible with specialised types of equipment and implants. The equipment can be quite expensive and they are rarely available in the government hospitals across the country.