Hip surgeries see rise among Covid infected

RANCHI: For 35-year-old Ishwar Rao from Jangaon, what started as a slight pain in the right hip joint a year back briefly after he recovered from a Covid-19 infection, became an debilitating pain which made him bed-ridden.
"I was unable to even walk without limping and had stopped going to work," said Rao, who has been diagnosed with avascular necrosis (AVN) of the hip joint. Rao is among 40 such patients under treatment at Gandhi hospital. Other corporate hospitals too have recorded an unprecedented increase in cases, mostly in young males. The upsurge is being seen since the last four months at the Gandhi hospital, while few others have recorded an increase since 8-10 months.
"We are seeing atleast 10-15 such cases each month since the last four months. AVN of the hip joint in these cases is due to the heavy dosage of steroids," said Dr K Bansilal, associate professor, department of Orthopedic, Gandhi hospital.
While majority of the patients can be treated with minor surgical procedures, in some patients a joint replacement surgery is performed.
The increase in these cases is due to indiscriminate use of steroids during Covid treatment. However, a small portion of patients have not been on steroid treatment too. "In about 10% of the cases, there was no use of steroids and they had mild symptoms only. In these cases, AVN could be triggered due to low supply of oxygen to the joint due to Covid or it could also be the disease itself," explained Dr Sai Lakshman, head of department of Orthopedic, KIMS hospital.