Nagpur: In recent budget allocations, the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) sanctioned of Rs1.10 crore for establishing a bone bank on the hospital premises.
Currently, there are only 4 fully functioning bone banks in India and none of them is in Central India. The sanctioned bone bank of GMCH will be the only one in Central India which will cater to the bone needs in 800km radius around Nagpur.
GMCH dean Dr Sajal Mitra told TOI that GMCH will be the first medical college in Maharashtra to have a bone bank. “There are some specific cases in which we require bone allograft. Presently, we depend on Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) in Mumbai where a state-of-the-art bone bank is functioning. GMCH will be the second in state to have such initiatives,” he said.
TOI had reported earlier that the GMCH has got a bonanza of new projects sanctioned under the DPC budget. Bone bank is one of the most ambitious projects of the institution.
Dr Mohammad Faizal, who has played an important role in preparing the proposal of this bone bank, told TOI about how it will work and how it will benefit the people.
“Apart from TMH, bone banks are there in Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai. We are following the model of TMH from where we used to get bone for grafting,” he said. Besides TMH, bone banks are also functioning in AIIMS Delhi, MS Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru, and Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai.
Cancer patients with tumour are the big beneficiaries of bone bank. Apart from that, children born with bone-related disorders, accident victims, those who are undergoing revision joint replacements, spinal fusion, and those having complaints of non-union of bones will get a sustainable as well as affordable solution through the bank.
Bone banks provide surgeons with real human bone material which can be used for treating such patients. Since the constitution of the replacement is the same as a real bone in the body, the patient’s system accepts it better and helps the affected area in recovering faster. It is estimated that over 40% of patients with critical bone surgeries require a replacement that can be made only from an actual human bone.
“Our focus is on institutionalizing new things in GMCH. I know this is an ambitious project, but if not GMCH then who will bring such things to Nagpur?” said Dr Mitra.