Rare surgery restores spine of Emirati in Kerala

Trivandrum: In a rare surgery, doctors at the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) here has restored the spine of a UAE national, deformed by a rare disease called adult scoliosis, a condition in which the spine bends to the side abnormally.
A team of doctors headed by spine surgeon Dr Ranjith Unnikrishnan restored the spine of 67-year-old Abduseid Abdullah Al Briki through spine instrumentation in an operation lasting 12 hours. The patient could walk the next day onwards and left the hospital fully recovered after seven days.
A statement issued by the hospital on Monday said the patient had been suffering from the disease for nearly a decade. He had sought treatment from a hospital in Chennai 10 years ago after he suffered from a condition in which blood clotted below his knee.
"He had a back pain which was not diagonised then. Over the last 10 years the back pain worsened and his body started to tilt due to scoliosis. He suffered from severe pain and his movements got restricted. And it became increasingly difficult for him to do his daily routine," the statement said.
He heard about KIMS from a hospital in the UAE and decided to undergo treatment at KIMS. The age factor, the degeneration and the tilt of the spine, the compression of the nerves as well the pain posed challenges to the doctors.
However, the doctors overcome the situation and performed the surgery successfully, the statement said. KIMS chairman Dr M I Sahadulla said that the hospital was fully equipped with all the facilities for crucial surgeries including keyhole spine surgeries.
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