For every 10, 000 knee and hip replacement surgeries performed in India, a doctor conducts one complete elbow replacement. Sunil Dachepalli, M.D., Joint Replacement and Sports Medicine Specialist at Yashoda Hospitals, Somajiguda, India, in March successfully performed that surgery on a 70-year-old woman patient from Kenya.
Indian Surgeon Replaces Elbow
1 min read Premium comments
Secondary
Describing the surgery he said that elbow joint replacement is complicated because of “several moving parts that balance each other with great precision to control the movements of the forearm.” He added; “Care must be taken to avoid harming the large nerve that travels along the outside edge of the elbow joint. The patient had badly fractured her left elbow due to a fall. She underwent two surgeries in Kenya which failed to alleviate her misery. She found it difficult to move her elbow that had become stiff.”
The patient was discharged from the hospital three days following her surgery and doctors reported that she was doing well. “She could use her hand as before after going through physiotherapy, ” they said.
React:
Discussion
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.
Join the conversation
Orthopedic professionals are discussing this. Sign in and upgrade to read every comment and add your voice.