Rare surgery performed on a road accident survivor
Posted on: 23/Sep/2017 9:40:16 AM
A Rare Spinal Cord Surgery was performed on a road accident survivor at Kauvery hospital, Mylapore recently. Mr Ramesh, a 33 year old man from Coimbatore sustained injury to his left arm in a road traffic accident in 2013. He was diagnosed to have a complete avulsion injury of his Brachial Plexus, nerve group that provides nerve supply to the entire arm. Dr G Balamurali, Consultant Neuro-Spine Surgeon at Kauvery hospital performed DREZ procedure, a nine hour long meticulous surgery in the cervical spinal cord on the 18th September 2017.
Mr Kiran from Bangalore sustained a similar Brachial Plexus avulsion injury from a road accident and suffered severe pain for 14 long years. He was treated by this procedure, following which he has 100% pain relief. Mr Ananthana sustained a crush injury and was suffering with severe neuropathic pain for 27 years, which did not respond to any medical treatment and had total relief following surgery. Mr. Mohammed, from Hosur, was involved in a road accident suffered years of pain before he got relief from surgery.
Addressing the media, Dr G Balamurali, Consultant Neuro-Spine Surgeon, Kauvery Hospital said, "There are several hundreds of patients with such injury, who are unaware of this option being available. Most common causes of such injury are road accidents and fall from height. 30-40% of patients with these injuries develop severe pain in the whole limb either due to spinal cord damage or avulsion of nerve roots from the spinal cord.
The pain is typically burning, stabbing, pricking, electric shock like, sharp and continuous. The pain can get worse at times and some patients may develop suicidal thoughts being unable to cope with pain. Pain can be aggravated just by talking, movement of any body part, breeze from fan, noise from the surroundings or water during bath. Some patients are house bound for even15-20 years and have serious psychological issues. They lose their job, family, children, friends and social contact."
He adds, "This specific surgical procedure is performed by very few surgeons in India. Procedures such as nerve grafts to enable movement have been done over years but this particular procedure is exclusive. This is a high-risk surgery, which is technically demanding. Serious side effects like paralysis is possible if the procedure is not done by adequately trained personnel. A team of Anaesthetist, Neurologist and Neurophysiologist perform this procedure, which lasts about 8-10 hours. Conditions that involve severe pain from Spinal cord Injury, cancer pain, post herpetic pain and spasticity from cerebral palsy may all be treated in a similar manner." We have also performed this surgery on 2 patients with Spinal Cord Injury with both leg pain and they have had good pain relief.
Dr.Aravindan, Executive Director, Kauvery Hospital said, "There are a growing number of patients with Brachial plexus injury. However, the awareness about the treatment options available for this is lacking here. In India, this holds good for any rare medical problem whereas in the western world there are support groups lead by patients themselves. Kauvery Hospital will now facilitate the launch of a patient support group (www.bpisupportgroup.com) as a CSR activity to bring together people with Brachial Plexus Injury.
"This group will consist t of patients predominantly and also some specialists as advisors. People who have suffered and have undergone treatment will be able to support and guide those who develop a new injury. The caregivers will also need support and the aim is to have a peer support group who can guide them too, apart from the patients .Kauvery hospital will manage this website for a year and then hand over the website to a committee that will be formed by the patient group. We will continue to extend all possible support thereafter wherever required. This will be a big resource site for patients and there is scope for future expansion in terms of financial support for the underprivileged even." he further added.
For more details contact: Ms. Nithya - 73058 55710/ Satyan Bhatt – 9840085411
