03 Decembner 2010
By Jayashree Nandi
Bangalore, India
Almost all physical disabilities can be corrected today, provided you treat them early. The medical fraternity is seeing huge advances in the area of corrective surgeries and prosthetics, but the drawback is that not many can afford these technologies.
Chairman and chief of orthopaedic services, Sparsh Hospitals, Dr Sharan Patil, who has been treating complex disabilities and organizing charity campaigns to fund such surgeries, shared a few such medical advances with TOI.
Frames are a great advancement, especially for musculoskeletal deformities. "Limbs can be straightened gradually with frames. There are frames now for severely twisted limbs as well," he said.
Cerebral palsy can be treated better with the Gait lab. This has been developed and refined over the period to help identify exact problem areas and correct them accordingly. "There is a lot of success in the treatment of accident-related disabilities, especially in limb reconstruction. Advanced prosthetics ensure easy-to-wear artificial limbs, giving them a look of ‘reality’," Dr Patil said.
Tackling The Cost Factor
Such treatment is expensive and cannot be afforded by people of lower economic strata. To this, Dr Patil says that the government spends huge amounts as disability allowance, and this can be reduced if such issues are identified in their early stages itself.
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