Col. Mohammad Ismail Wardak, M.D., the Afghan orthopedic surgeon who taught us all about the spirit of innovation by inventing the Afghan Knee Device in an old bicycle shop under the noses of the Taliban is looking for some advice from his colleagues.
Afghan’s Dr. Wardak Seeks Peer Advice
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Secondary
Dr. Wardak put up a Facebook posting on December 9, 2014 which included a video of a young woman unable to walk.
“Who is she?
Her name is Samany from Herat.
She can’t walk for last 21 years.
She has CP we admitted her in Sardar Dawod hospital as another interesting case by help of Siawash sahib.
We decided to operate [on] her soon and it will be a major surgery in 6-8 regions on nerves and tendons of both lower limbs.
The recovery will take some time so plz if you have any idea regarding such case let me know.
Also I wish you all pray for the success of this operation and walking of that young lady.”
Dr. Wardak told us that he would like some comments regarding the calf muscles if they perform a “close tenotomy of Achilles tendon only or mixed with neurotomy for calf muscles.”
Please contact Dr. Wardak directly at: ismailredi2000@gmail.com or drismailredi2000@yahoo.com.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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