At 22, she is probably youngest to undergo knee replacement surgery

At 22, she is probably youngest to undergo knee replacement surgery

Nimesh.Khakhariya@timesgroup.com

Rajkot:12.102021

Though she was just 22 years old, Vinju Vanda felt like an old woman. As a child, she had developed pain in her left knee, which forced her to limp around. As years passed, the pain got so excruciating that she begged the doctors to cut off her leg. Today, the smile on her face testifies to the relief she finally experienced from undergoing a total knee replacement surgery. And she is probably the youngest patient not just in India but also the entire world to have undergone this operation.

Doctors from Rajkot, who operated on her three months ago, assessed all parameters medically to finally declare the surgery a success.

Dr Umang Shihora, an orthopaedic, said, “About 98% patients who require knee replacement have varus deformity (inward angulation). Vanda had valgus deformity (outward angulation) and she was quite young. When she first approached me one and a half years ago, I hesitated as I did not want to put her life at risk. However, she stayed adamant and we performed the surgery, which lasted two and a half hours.

“We looked through medical records and journals from across the globe, and realized she was the youngest person to undergo knee replacement. Before her, the youngest patient was a 25-year-old from Uttar Pradesh.” Clinical investigation revealed that Vanda, who hails from Roghada village of Kutiyana taluka, had injured her knee when she was six or seven years of age. “Since they belong to a small village, the injury was probably neglected. This damaged the structure that gives stability to joints and resulted in muscles wasting away,” said Dr Shihora. Vanda, a graduate in English literature, is currently pursuing her BEd. She has four siblings and her father is a cattle-breeder. “I began limping at the age of 10. My family took me to a doctor in Upleta who advised us to undergo surgery after I turned 18. When we approached doctors after I became an adult, they refused to operate on me due to my young age. I went through unbearable pain. The month before the operation, I was bed-ridden. I asked the doctors to amputate my leg. I was ready to do anything to get rid of this suffering,” she said.

Her plea prompted the doctors to operate on her. “We waited three months before declaring the operation a success as clinical follow-up is important. We check parameters including how much pain remains and movement of joints. She is free of pain now. However, she will have to undergo physiotherapy and treatment to strengthen her muscles,” Dr Shihora added.

Dr S R Rao, a senior orthopaedic surgeon from Rajkot, said, “Generally, doctors do not prefer to perform knee replacement surgery for younger patients as the replaced knee lasts for 20-25 years and then the patient has to undergo another replacement surgery.”