But for the special efforts of the NRI Hospital Bone Cancer wing, a 45-year-old bone cancer woman patient (name withheld) would have become permanently bedridden.
Bone Cancer specialist Koushik Hari claimed that such a complicated surgery to remove a large tumour in the pelvic bone to be replaced by 3D printed titanium implant had not been documented in India till now.
He claimed that only three such procedures had been performed in the world —one in South Korea and two in the United Kingdom — till now to the best of his knowledge.
It took nine months to get the titanium prosthesis to be made using 3D printing technology. Dr Hari worked with the 3D printing company constantly exchanging drawings, pictures and other specifications over WhatsApp and email for the making of the titanium implant.
The procedure to remove the bone tumour and put the implant took eight hours. The team of surgeons lead by Dr Hari had to perform a Hemi Pelviotomy and replace the hemi pelvis with the 3D printed prosthesis.
Since the patient belonged to an agricultural family, the 3D company which asked ₹9.5 lakh for the implant charged only ₹4 lakh and NRI Hospital subsidised the cost of procedure, Dr. Hari said.
NRI Hospital president Upendranath Nimmagadda, secretary Bikkina Savithri and directors of the hospital board congratulated Dr Hari and his team on the achievement at a media conference here on Thursday.