Miracle Spine Surgery of Little Girl at Chennai !

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Girl gets spine corrected

Source : Deccan Chronicle , 29th June 2013

One in 3,000 girls is affected by scoliosis, the curving of the spine from side to side. But only a few visit hospitals for surgery, says Dr Nalli R. Uvaraj,  professor of spine surgery, department of orthopedics, Rajiv Gandhi government general hospital (RGGGH).

Dr V. Kanagasabai, dean, RGGGH (left) and Dr R. Uvaraj, professor of spine surgery, department of orthopedics, greet Abitha, who underwent growing rod technique procedure, on Friday.

“If left untreated, the lungs and heart get affected and one’s lifespan also comes down. Scoliosis is more common among girls than boys,” said Dr Nalli who performed dual growing rod technique procedure on nine-year-old P. Abitha from Porur.

While a few corporate hospitals perform surgery for scoliosis, this is the first time the government hospital has performed it on a nine-year-old with the new technique.

“We usually operate on 13 or 14-year-old girls. This patient visited us with acute back pain and we performed the procedure in March. While most operations for spinal deformity on young children affect their growth, this particular technique is to allow for continued, controlled growth of the spine,” informed Dr Nalli, adding that screws are inserted into the bones of the vertebral column at the level of the deformity and the correction is done.

The child needs to visit the hospital every six months to have the rods lengthened. “This is mainly to keep up with the child’s growth.  She is only nine years now and till she reaches 14 years, the rods will be lengthened every six months in a simple procedure. When she reaches 20, the rod can be removed,” explained Dr V. Kana­gasabai, dean, RGGGH.

While the surgery would have cost Rs4 lakh and the follow-up every six months more than Rs70,000, the procedure was done free of cost at the general hospital. Abitha, daughter of car driver Prabhu, said she could play well and would go back to school from Monday.



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GH docs do rare surgery on kid with bent spine

Source : The New Indian Express , 29th June 2013

Nine-year-old Abitha found it hard to run around and play her favourite games with her friends at school as she often had unbearable pain on her back. Her father Prabhu, a car driver, approached doctors at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital a few months ago after he found that his little girl was suffering from scoliosis, a spinal deformity since birth.





               Top docs at RGGGH show Abitha’s progress post surgery

Today, Abitha can run and play around just like any other child without pain. Thanks to the dual growing rod technique, a rare spine treatment given to her.

Doctors at the RGGGH performed the procedure which would otherwise cost her Rs 11 lakh in total, free of cost. “Scoliosis is the bending of the spine on its side. The girl’s father approached us after seeing newspapers about a 22-year-old woman with the same deformity we had operated on earlier,” said Dr V Kanagasabai, Dean, RGGGH.

With highly expensive equipment procured through government funds, the doctors cut and opened the lower part of her back, inserted rods with a length of about 15cms each and four screws. They then created an opening near the neck to adjust the rods up through tunneling method and fixed some hooks. Within a month after the first surgery was done on March 1, the girl was able to move around freely, doctors said.

But since Abitha was just nine, she would require four to five surgeries in intervals of about six months. While the first surgery cost  about Rs 4 lakh, the subsequent ones will cost about Rs 70,000 each if charged. “If the girl grows about one cm, we can extend the rod to keep pace with her growth. This can be performed through a small incision and will not affect the girl’s growing organs like heart and lungs. In the first surgery itself, we were able to achieve 50 to 60 per cent correction,” explained Prof Nalli R Uvaraj, Ortho Spine Surgery Unit, RGGGH.

Once the girl reaches her full height at the age of about 14 or 15, she will undergo a  complete procedure where the rods will be fused and fixed permanently, doctors said.  They added that though it was a long, difficult therapy for the child, the complication of hook dislodgement and rod breakage was low. “The size of the rod would be double the size for adults than the ones used on her. After 14 or 15, the growth rate is less and it won’t affect her or the rods. There is no reason why such a deformity occurs but it happens one in 3,000 people and more on women,” the professor explained.

The little girl said she was comfortable walking around. “I study class four and I love playing with my friends. Earlier I had pain, now I don’t. I am going to get back to school on Monday,” she said with a smile.

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Surgery straightens 9-year-old’s spine

Source : The Hindu , 29th June 2013

For years now, P. Prabhu, a car driver, has been spending sleepless nights trying to find a solution to his nine-year-old daughter’s condition – a spinal deformity. All through her formative years, Prabhu watched Abitha walk with a slight hunch and struggle with intense pain.

On Friday though, three months after the child underwent a surgery at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (GH), Prabhu was looking forward to the day she would fully recover.

“When Abitha was three, we noticed she walked with a slight hunch but we did not know the extent of the problem. She used to complain of pain. We found out that she had a spinal deformity only when she was six,” he said.

Doctors at GH diagnosed Abitha with scoliosis — a sideways curvature of the spine, and performed a surgery using the ‘growing rods’ technique, in March.

“Abitha was brought to us last November. She had an ‘s’-shaped curve in her spine. We opened up the upper end and lower end of the curve. Screws and hooks were inserted at both ends and we tunnelled four rods under the skin. The screws held on to the rods on either ends. The rods will be lengthened every six months to keep up with the child’s growth,” said Nalli R. Uvaraj, professor of spinal surgery at GH.

When the child is older, doctors will remove the rods and perform a spinal fusion operation. Abitha, who is in class IV at a school in Porur, said she felt much better after the surgery.