Five complex back surgeries in a day

Chennai: Five complex spinal deformity surgeries were performed on Friday alone at Apollo Hospitals. International surgeons in deformity correction – Dr. Lawrence G. Lenke from Missouri and Dr. Munish C. Gupta from California along with Dr Sajan K. Hegde, consultant spine surgeon at Apollo, performed these surgeries on five people, including patients from Oman, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Doctors said international patients too visit the city for complex spinal surgeries as the latest technology for surgeries are being put to use here. “All the patients had severe complex deformities and the surgeries were too challenging.

More than 40-50 per cent of my patients come from various countries and every month 30-40 complex spinal surgeries are being done,” informed Dr Hegde, a pioneer in using robotic technology, adding correction of spinal deformity requires high level of expertise in the operating surgeon and his team and also in the monitoring of patients for neurological functions.

The normal spine has natural curvatures – in the neck and lower back (lumbar) to front; chest (thoracic) to back. In case of an abnormality there will be a lateral bending of the spine called scoliosis or abnormal forward bending known as kyphosis. Often there can be a combination of kyphosis and scoliosis, doctors explained.

The deformity can be the result of defects at birth or develop in the first or second decades of life or related to diseases like neurofibromatosis.
If neglected, deformities can progress to be very severe and can also be life threatening.

The surgeries were telecast live and over 70 spine surgeons took part in the ‘Spinal Deformity Live’ conference and witnessed the complex spine deformities and also how to treat them.