After suffering a fall, a 92-year-old man underwent a rare and successful hip replacement procedure at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in the Capital. The man, identified as Nasiruddin, sustained an injury on his right hip along with a fractured neck of the thigh bone after he fell down during his morning walk, almost three weeks back. Being frail at this age, the patient had little hope of recovering. However, once he was taken to the hospital, doctors carefully examined him and sought after a solution. Dr Rajeev K Sharma, senior consultant orthopaedics and joint replacement surgeon informed, “When he came to me, he had great pain in right hip, and was unable to stand and walk. We performed some tests and found out that it was a case of fracture neck of femur with gross osteoporosis. If such a patient is not operated and made to walk soon, the life of patient is at serious risk because of strong possibility of chest infection, urinary infection and bed sores.”
After a thorough investigation, Sharma decided to perform unilateral Total Hip Arthoplasty on the patient which is the replacement of the hip. In this procedure, the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant. This uncemented prosthesis has a fine mesh of holes on the surface area that touches the bone. The mesh allows the bone to grow into it and becomes a part of the bone. If fixation is done well, the patient can walk with support within few days. “I have gone through immense pain,” said Nasiruddin.