Knee procedures are very common in India, with osteoarthritis serving as the primary indication which causes pain, deformity and difficulty bending knee.
In orthopedic procedures, the O-arm technology allows to clearly get X-ray images, reducing the possibility of errors.
O-arm technology during knee surgery is incredibly beneficial and is capable of generating three-dimensional X-ray images. It takes three-dimensional images in real time much like a CT scanner.
“There is no need to move the patient to a different room or department for the CT scan because we can see it on the operating table in real-time. In orthopedic procedures, we use instruments such as screws, rods, or plates, and the O-arm approach allows us to clearly get X-ray images, reducing the possibility of errors. Furthermore, patient safety is maximized using this procedure. It definitely aids surgeons in gaining surgical precision,” informed Dr. Parag Sancheti, Chairman and Managing Director of Sancheti Hospital.
In an exclusive interview with Financial Express Online, Dr Parag Sancheti talks about evolving technologies like 0-arm technology in knee replacement surgeries. It is safer and provides more accurate placement of spinal tools for better surgical outcomes. It can monitor all advancements in real time using the O-arm approach.
Dr Sancheti has carried on his father’s legacy by pioneering and reinventing the concept of Medical Tourism to make orthopaedic services available to people travelling to India from other countries. With more than 15000 successful knee replacement surgeries, Dr. Parag Sancheti is also known as the ‘knee expert’.
Knee osteoarthritis is intensely painful. However, it develops in phases; there are four stages in total, with only the final stage or grade people should be considering a surgery. We constantly tell patients at Sancheti that getting a knee replacement is one option if it’s in the last stage, but you may not require surgery, at least not right immediately. There are various things you can try first, either on your own or with the assistance of a specialist, to alleviate knee discomfort and even postpone the need for knee replacement. In my experience, only about 20% of people require knee replacement surgery, and the majority does not.
Sancheti hospital is the first hospital completely dedicated to orthopedics in Pune. Please tell us about the journey and success story.
My father Padmashree Awardee Dr K H Sancheti founded the hospital in 1965. He was the first orthopedic surgeon to work in Pune. Previously, it was practiced by general surgeons. We began with a small 10-bed facility that gradually expanded to 50 beds, then another 150 beds were added, and we are currently constructing a bigger 100-bed hospital. As a result, we now have close to 250 bedded dedicated orthopedics’ and traumatology facilities. There was no dedicated surgeon in Pune and no such facility just for orthopedics, not only in Pune but in all of Maharashtra, which was important to attend to accidents, joint pains. Basically, it is a single specialty hospital which treats arthritis, muscle pains and even polio patients. We established this specialized hospital.
How many successful knee surgeries have you done so far?
I’ve been performing knee replacement surgery for the past 20 years. I began in 2001 and have performed around 15000 knee replacement surgeries to date. I specialize in knees and everything related to them, including knee replacements, arthroscopies, and post-injury treatment. Knee procedures are very common in India, with osteoarthritis serving as the primary indication which causes pain, deformity, difficulty bending the knee, and in India, we encounter many such cases. There are perhaps 8 to 10 such institutes, and we are one of the top ten.
What is your perspective on the lack of expertise in this domain and what needs to be done to fill in the gaps?
I began my practice in 1992 after finishing my studies. After a few years, I felt a great need for super specialization, so I travelled to the United States and the United Kingdom to train myself and learn how to perform specific knee surgeries. Because there were fewer people performing exclusively knee surgeries, there was a significant opportunity. Bigger cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi had a few specialists, but not here in Pune. The knee replacement was performed by my father, who mainly inspired me to pursue this discipline. I opted to have an additional specialty as arthroscopy in addition to knee replacement surgery. This is another important surgery where the recovery is faster compared to others. Arthroscopy is common and many surgeons in India are doing it already. There is an arthroscopy society in India and it is widely popular.
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