Jaipur: the Sawai Man Singh hospital doctors created history by using 3D printed technique for the first time in the country in neurosurgery. The doctors created a model of neck and head junction (craniovertebral junction), which was a part of the body to be operated by the neurosurgeons.
Dr V D Sinha said “It is a technique, which develops exactly the same model of neck and head junction of the patient. The use of this technique for neurosurgery happened for the first time in the country ,”. Dr V D Sinha is head of neurosurgery department, SMS Hospital.
The surgery was conducted on a 23-year-old patient, from Laxmangarh of Sikar district, ‘Pradhan Jangid’. He was suffering from craniovertebral junction (CVJ) anomaly.
“It is because of the disease, the patient had a problem in turning his neck, weakness and insensitivity in the limbs. He was diagnosed with the CVJ anomaly disease in February. Operation is the only solution for the problem,” Dr Rashim Kataria, assistant professor (neurosurgery) SMS Hospital, who conducted the operation.
In a normal procedure, neurosurgeons conduct operation straight away to correct the CVJ anomaly. But it comes along with several risks. There is a slight risk of a patient becoming disabled.
“We use the 3D techniques to ward off any such risk. We practise surgery on the model of CV junction, which is exactly the same CV junction of the patient. It allows us to know about the nerves and other anatomy of the head and neck junction. When we conducted the surgery, we already had in mind the exact location of nerves and CV junction, which was to be operated,” Dr Kataria said.
He said that using the 3D printed technique, they minimised the chances of error in the surgery. “Using 3D printed technique gives us more confidence in the surgery. The other benefits are less blood loss, surgery requires less time and more accurate. In such surgeries, you don’t have to be 99% accura te, but 100% accurate for better results. The use of printed technique made us more confident and accurate,” Dr Kataria said.
The surgery was conducted on March 22. Now, on Saturday , the patient will be discharged from the hospital.
ed: Jaipur
The patient, Pradhan said, “I was suffering from these problems for the past five-six years.” He further said he : lives with his parents and two brothers at home.