MANGALURU: A rare complex surgery was performed by the department of surgical oncology, Yenepoya Cancer Centre, Yenepoya Medical College in Deralakatte to save the leg of a four-year-old boy.
The boy was suffering from high grade rare bone cancer (osteosarcoma of the femur). The child underwent a complex surgery at the medical college and both the leg and life of the child was saved.
Dr Jalaluddin Akbar K C, head of department, Yenepoya Cancer Centre and Dr M Vijayakumar, who have a huge experience of limb saving surgeries for bone cancers, designed a special expandable prosthesis for the child and approached two companies to custom manufacture it.
“A German company quoted a cost of Rs 30 lakhs and a company from Chennai was willing to do at Rs 1.5 lakh. Hence, we got it manufactured in Chennai. The child underwent a complex surgery and both the leg and life of the child were saved. The surgery duration was six hours. The post-operative period was uneventful,” Dr Jalaluddin said.
In fact, the parents of the child consulted major cancer centres and specialist hospitals across India, where it was advised that amputation of the limb was the only option, he said.
“This case was discussed in the hospital tumour board and was taken up as a challenge to save the leg of the boy, as parents refused amputation. The challenge in this case is that no centre in India has done such a surgery in this age group and very few cases are reported across the world as per literature review. The problem in doing limb saving surgery in such a young child is managing the growing bone and maintaining equal limb length on both sides, and unavailability of a prosthesis to do that. Hence, a custom-made expanding prosthesis was designed, and a major milestone was achieved in breaking the barrier of not doing limb salvage in such young patients,” he added.