New Delhi: A 60-year-old woman successfully underwent a hip replacement surgery at a private hospital in Kerala, becoming the first ever patient in the state to undergo such procedure.
The pioneering surgery was performed using a 3D model of the hip last week at VPS Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi by a medical team led by Bipin Theruvil, specialist in hip replacements.
According to the hospital authorities, the womam, a housewife from Kottayam, was suffering from a painful hip and could not walk properly after she met with an accident in 2014.
However, the woman was able to walk on the same day itself after the surgery, which lasted less than four hours.
"The final surgery lasted less than four hours and the patient was able to walk on the same day itself. This technology will revolutionise complex joint replacements as surgeons can achieve a high level of precision in complex cases," said Theruvil.
"The 3D printed hips offer surgeons an opportunity to plan and practice the surgery in complex cases and thereby saving operating time, reducing blood loss and in the end speeding up recovery," he added.
A special software was used to process the CT scans of the patient's fractured hip and printed the same by using a 3D printer which took 18-hours to print. The model was an exact copy in size.
In order to determine the position and exact size of the implants required, the team then performed a mock surgery on the 3D model.
(With IANS inputs)
