A team of orthopaedic and joint replacement surgeons led by *Dr Yash Gulati, orthopaedic surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi, successfully performed a complicated surgery on 96 year old woman suffering from hip fracture.
The case was challenging as the patient was suffering from multiple morbidities such as cancer of bones, had a pacemaker placed in her heart and had undergone bypass surgery for heart along with a history of acute stroke.
Dr. Yash Gulati, Senior Consultant, Orthopedic, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said
“This was one of the most complex situations I came across in my career. The multiple health challenges posed a great risk to the patient’s life and would have led to the patient losing her life if the line of treatment adopted was not correct. If we leave such patients in bed without surgery, they develop terrible life threatening complications such as pneumonia, bed sore, embolism etc. Surgery also carries high risk. Often the relatives are very apprehensive to give consent for surgery involving high risk. In consultation with the patient and relatives we decided to go ahead with hip replacement. The surgery was done through a less invasive technique to prevent any blood loss and major surgical trauma.”
“It may be pertinent to mention that she was suffering from cancer with involvement of bones. She had the fracture around with a very trivial fall. Pacemaker would not allow us to use electro cautery to prevent bleeding during surgery, Alternative methods were used to achieve this as surgery involving loss of blood could be fatal. Post-operative care can be a challenge in such tricky situations. Our expert team of doctors, nurses and physical therapists worked hard to provide excellent medical care and the patient was mobilized the very next day thus preventing complications related to prolonged bed rest. Our team in the critical care unit was kept on a standby in case of any complications arose.”
Shakuntala (Name changed) said,
“We had given up hope that the fracture would get cured as she was suffering from several other grave health disorders, however We are thankful to Dr. Gulati and his team for smoothly curing her broken bones.”
With the increase in life expectancy because of healthy habits and better medical services, it is now common to come across patients in their 80s and 90s with fragility hip fractures. This burden is going to increase. Broken Hip Surgeries in nonagenarians are mostly life-threatening owing to the old age and ailing health conditions. In such cases, patients undergo a lot of trauma and shock which might affect the recovery process.
About Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals
Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, India’s first JCI accredited hospital, is a joint venture between the Government of Delhi and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited. Commissioned in July 1996, it is the third super-specialty tertiary care hospital set up by the Apollo Hospitals Group.
Spread over 15 acres, it houses 57 specialties with more than 300 specialists and more than 700 operational beds, 19 operation theatres, 138 ICU beds, round-the-clock pharmacy, NABL accredited laboratories, 24-hour emergency services and an active air ambulance service. Apollo Hospitals Delhi has the leading programme in kidney and liver transplant in the country. The first successful paediatrics and adult liver transplants in India were performed at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.
The hospital is at the forefront of medical technology and expertise. It provides a complete range of latest diagnostic, medical and surgical facilities for the care of its patients. The Hospital has introduced the most sophisticated imaging technology to India with the introduction of 64 slice CT and 3 Tesla MRI, Novalis Tx and the integrated PET Suite. Indraprastha Apollo has also pioneered the concept of preventive health check programmes and has created a satisfied customer base over decades.
The Hospital has been consistently ranked amongst the best 10 hospitals in India by The Week survey for the past few years.
