14 year old Yemeni boy with Clubfoot cured at Jaypee Hospital

Noida: Team of doctors from Orthopedics and Neuro Surgery Department of Noida based Jaypee Hospital have treated a 14 year old Boy Firoz, by performing a complex surgery. The boy is a resident of Yemen's war zone and was suffering from a rare condition, ‘Clubfoot’ after his birth. In this condition, the foot gets completely twisted which makes it unable for a person to walk and perform day to day activities properly. The team of doctors not only operated Firoz’s clubfoot but also treated the reason for which he was suffering from it. The critical surgery has been successfully performed by Dr. Gaurav Rathore - Senior Consultant, Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement, Dr. Dinesh Rattnani- Senior Consultant and Dr. Rohan Sinha, Senior Consultant from Neurosurgery Department of Jaypee Hospital Noida. The surgery was performed in the second week of April and the patient was admitted in the hospital for about one week. Post that Firoz used to visit the hospital for his physiotherapy sessions and finally went back to his country in June last week.

Explaining about the rare condition, Dr Gaurav Rathore, Senior Consultant, Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement Department, Jaypee Hospital said, “One of Firoz’s foot started to turn slowly after his birth. When he was four, the foot started to turn further and by the time he turned 14 year old, his foot got completely twisted, while the other foot was completely normal. Due to the disease, the patient was not even able to walk properly without any support or perform the daily activities properly.”

Dr. Gaurav Rathore further explained, "This disease is called NEUROGENIC EQUINO CAVOVARUS FOOT LEFT SIDE. The patient underwent two spinal cord surgeries in Yemen but his condition remained intact. After that the parents visited Jaypee Hospital for their child’s treatment. In diagnosis it was found that the patient’s foot got twisted due to a spinal cord disease. In order to treat the spinal cord disease TRIPPLE ARTHODESIS WITH TENDON TRANSFER procedure was performed and three joints of foot were operated to make them straight. Dr. Dinesh Rattnani, Senior Consultant, Neurosurgery Department, Jaypee Hospital informing about the disease related to spine said, "The reason behind patient’s club foot was a serious disease related to his spine. This disease is called TETHERED SPINAL CORD WITH L4 L5 DERMOID WITH THICKENED FILUM TERMINALE. In this disease, the nerves of the body get entangled with each other. Multiple nerves in patient’s spine were entangled to each other and he also had DERMOID TUMOR in his spinal cord. Due to this, the child's foot not only got completely twisted but he was unable to urinate or defecate properly. Dr. Rohan Sinha, Senior Consultant, Neurosurgery Department, Jaypee Hospital, informing about the patient's treatment said, "The treatment of the disease was a challenge for both the teams because the patient had already undergone a surgery twice in Yemen but we were confident that though the procedure is critical but we can do it. We first had to treat the entangled nerves in the spinal cord so that the foot doesn’t get turned again and then straighten the crooked foot. Both the teams, the orthopaedic and neurosurgery team performed the surgeries simultaneously. In the first stage DETETHERING OF CORD procedure was done in which the entangled nerves in spine were treated and then club foot of the child was treated in the second stage. The complete procedure took about 7 – 8 hours.”

“I am thankful to the team of doctors at Jaypee Hospital because of whom I am able to stand on my foot straight and perform all my activities myself. I can play like other children. Doctors here have blessed me with a new life. I am really happy and thankful to them,” said Firoz, the patient. It is a very challenging task to keep the kids under the dosage of anesthesia for 7-8 hours but senior anaesthetist Dr Kiran Reddy successfully completed the risky task. Along with this, Dr. Ramesh NR, Senior Physiotherapist, Jaypee Hospital also played a vital role in bringing Firoz’s foot back to normal after the operation.