Surgery of deformed Spine performed successfully at GIH

Kathmandu, July 31:A surgery of deformed spine was performed successfully in Grande International Hospital. The surgery was performed on an eight year old girl with growing rod technology for the first time in Nepal.

8 year old Nima Lama, daughter of Kajiman Lama and Shushma Lama from Kavre district was operated at Grande International Hospital.

Nima’s parentswere in a dilemma on what to do and what not to do after they had a baby girl born with spinal deformity. They went to a nearby hospital at Kavre. The doctor in the hospital suggested them to take Nima to Grande International Hospital, Kathmandu.

As time passed, Nima was growing and her parents brought her to Kathmandu for schooling. Nima is studying at Rhedon School in class three. Nima’s parent brought her to Grande International hospital for consultation with Dr. Binod Bijukachhefrom Spine Division.

Dr. Bijukachhe and his team of doctors counseled about all thechallenges of the surgery they were planning.  They were convinced and got ready for one of the most complicated and challenging surgery in spine.

Dr Bijukachhe and his team claim that, this was the first ever attempt to conduct a surgery of ‘early onset scoliosis’ with growing rod technology in Nepal.

There is always a risk in proper development of lungs and heart if the deformity is not corrected eventually leading to early death because of cardiopulmonary decompensation. As Nima was growing, the deformity was also increasing concurrently. So as early as possible the correction surgery was needed for Nima.

Dr. Bijukachhe and his team performed the surgery on 20th July 2016 and it was successful.

Dr. Bijukachhe says, “Nima started walking after 3days. Nima can breathe comfortably, her spine is straight now, her legs are balanced and comfortable for walking and her height has been increased by five centimeter.” He adds, this deformity by birth is clinically called “early onset scoliosis”.

“The same type of correction surgery abroad costs around 2 million (20 Lakh) Nepali rupees but we have customized this according to our context. We have customized and cut down the price of the growing rod to three hundred thousand (3 Lakh) Nepali rupees.” Says Dr Bijukachhe.

Every six monthswe need to do small surgery to expand the rod in order to keep her spinal length normal in par with her growth. This will continue till she is skeletally mature.

The team of doctors led by Dr. Binod Bijukachhe including Dr. Javed Ahmed Khah, Dr. Prashant Adhikari from Spine Division and Dr. Murari Raj Upreti and Dr Archan Adhikari from Anesthesia were involved in the treatment of Nima Lama.