92-year-old man undergoes successful hip surgery

In a rare case, a 92-year old man underwent a successful hip replacement procedure at a city hospital here.
The patient Nasiruddin had suffered a fall while going for a morning walk on June 22 this year.
He sustained injury over his right hip with a fractured neck of the thigh bone. At this age, he had little hope of recovering.
He was taken to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital where the doctors examined his condition.
"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," said Dr Rajeev K. Sharma, Senior Consultant Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement Surgeon.

After thorough investigation, Sharma decided to perform unilateral Total Hip replacement on the patient.

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.
Explaining the challenges of the surgery on such an old patient with weak bones and associated co morbidities, Sharma said, "Surgery was very challenging given the fact that he was a very elderly man and had other problems like extremely fragile bones and weak muscles. During the course of pre-operative check-up, all necessary investigations were done. Physician anaesthetics and orthopaedic team assessed the patient and the patient underwent right Total Hip Arthroplasty on June 24."

"I have gone through immense pain," said Nasiruddin.