Indian Express
15 July 2010

Doctor claims method will bring cost down to below rs 1 lakh, is durable than existing one
City–based doctor K H Sancheti has conceptu alised and designed an indigenous technique for hip and knee joint replacement surgery.

Already tested on two patients in Sancheti Hospital, the technique is said be more cost–effective and thrice more durable than the present one.

According to Sancheti, it will bring down the cost of such surgeries below Rs 1 lakh (at present it costs more than Rs 3 lakh). “It will be a great relief for arthritis patients as every year over one lakh patients in the country undergo this surgery. We are planning to file a patent for the technique it,” he said.

The new technique uses ceramic hip replacement method instead of the conventional hip replacement system plastic cup. By generating less debris, the amount of wear in the ceramic hip replacement is negligible, ensuring that the hip replacement would not loosen quickly,“ said Sancheti.

He said, ”The conventional hip replacement system with plastic cup requires revision surgery after 10–15 years, because of polyethylene (plastic) in the cup of prosthesis. Although plastic wear is an average of 0.1 mm each year, even this tiny amount of wear generates millions of particles of debris which damage the bone. The new tech nique will avoid this.

The new prosthesis is considerably cheaper. The indigenous ceramic on ceramic prosthesis will cost one fourth of the currently available imported prostheses (which is approximately Rs. 1.5 lakh), thereby reducing the surgery cost significantly,“ said Sancheti.

This technology will soon be brought into market after the clinical trials. A short training course will be organised at the Joint Replacement Centre of Sancheti Hospital to familiarise orthopaedic surgeons with the new technology,” he said.

Dr D Basu, scientist and head, bioceramics and coating division and Prof Dr Indranil Manna, director of the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata (CGCRI), a department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India, also worked along Sancheti in indigenously developing and manufacturing the hip prosthesis.

Dr Sancheti along with Dr Parag Sancheti, Dr Rajeev Joshi and Dr Surendra Patil performed surgeries on Deepali Patil and Gaurav Somavanshi on July 12 using this technique.

Both of them started walking within five days after the surgery.