“With 5 times failed hip, Iraqi teacher gets stands up tall again post a

successful revision surgery at Fortis Hospitals Mulund”

~Denied of medical support abroad, Iraqi woman finds India for clinical excellence~

Setting yet another milestone in orthopedic surgery, Dr Sachin Bhonsle at Fortis

Hospital Mulund performed a complicated hip replacement revision surgery on a

52 year old Iraqi lady who had undergone 6 failed hip surgeries before.

Dr Sachin Bhonsle, Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon took up a challenge to perform

the 6th followed by 7th revision putting the patient back on her feet. Sixth is a

preparatory for the final revision (7th surgery).

Patient Ms Nadia, a teacher from Baghdad had a childhood injury to her right hip

which damaged the joint progressively till it developed arthritis. When she was 40

years of age she decided to opt for a total hip replacement which was performed in

her own country. The surgery did not yield good results and her joint soon

dislocated. She had to undergo second surgery to revise the socket. This surgery

gave her benefit but only for two years.

In 2002 the hip developed problems once again and she had to have a revision

surgery for the third time. This failed again after three years.

In 2005 a fourth surgery was performed to change the entire hip joint. She got a

good pain relief after this surgery. This hip joint had loosened out by 2010 when a

fifth surgery was performed to change the joint surfaces. She did not get any benefit

from this surgery.

Reasons for failure:-

Unstable joint replacement and poor soft tissue balance

Early wear and tear because off poor alignment

Loosening because of inadequate fixation in bone and suboptimal cementing

Extensive soft tissue scarring and inexistent muscles because of repeated

operation in same place

Meanwhile destiny gave her a sixth chance, having suffered for so long Ms Nadia

mustered the courage to rectify her problem and decided to come down to India and

get operated upon her hip once again.

Dr Sachin Bhonsle says “This case is a fine example of a very complicated hip

replacement operation as Nadia had undergone several hip replacements before and

those operations were failures. Bone had become brittle due to intense scarring and

there was a major possibility of fracture. Nerve damage was possible during

approaching such hips because of nerve entrapment in severe scarring. Her poorly

controlled diabetes proved a further challenge.”

Dr Bhonsle had to first perform the surgery (6th) to remove all the implants, bone

cement and clean up the infection. He performed the final revision surgery (7th

surgery) during 1st week of July.

“I opened up the wound and thoroughly cleaned it again. I first prepared her socket

(used a cement less socket of a modern design which can last for many years) and

put some bone grafts in the depth. Then i went on to prepare the femur which

proved a huge challenge. There were many holes and breaks in the femur. I had to

use a titanium stem of great length to span breaks in the bone. In addition i had to

strengthen the bone using- bone grafts, titanium mesh, plates and screws. It took

almost 7 hours to complete the procedure with satisfaction.” adds Dr Bhonsle.

The surgery was successful with an uneventful recovery and Nadia was able to walk

within 48 hours of surgery. Dr. Bhonsle is very optimistic that the patient will lead a

normal life and will not require another revision in her lifetime.

“Having undergone 5 surgeries before, doctors abroad told me that a sixth correction

could never be performed on my hip. I thought that I will have to lead a challenged

life for the rest of the years. But like the saying goes every cloud has a silver lining! I

too got hope after 12 years of suffering from Dr Bhonsle who took up the challenge

and cured me. All I want to say is there is a solution to every problem, only thing is

we need to hunt out for the opportunity and everything else falls in place”, says

Nadia with a comforting smile on her face.

Image Gallery: Dr Sachin Bhonsle with the patient