New Delhi: In 2021, a 16-year-old girl’s thigh bone, ravaged by a chronic infection, was reconstructed by Delhi doctors using a piece of bone taken from her mother’s lower leg. Five years later, the rebuilt bone continues to grow.
The six children who underwent the procedure had bone gaps measuring around 12-13 cm, according to the surgeon treating the girl. The second patient, a 14-year-old girl, underwent the procedure in 2022 after a chronic bone infection and a fracture in weakened bone left her thigh bone poorly healed. Two boys — aged five and 11 – both advised above-knee amputation in their home country — travelled from Uzbekistan after reportedly being advised to undergo above-knee amputation in their home country.
Doctors said the challenge in these cases was the size of the defect. The surgery also offered the doctors a new approach which they have used for curing other children who were advised amputation. Three had bone cancer, two had chronic infections and one had a fracture that had failed to heal. The surgical team at Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi, subsequently treated five more children using the approach. The later cases included children with bone cancers, some of whom had reportedly been advised to undergo amputation in their home countries. Four more children from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have since undergone similar reconstructive surgery. Their treatment involved removing the diseased bone and reconstructing the defect with a segment of the mother’s fibula, secured with plates where required.