RGGGH doctors perform hip replacement surgery on heart transplant patient

When doctors of Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) evaluated 68-year-old Koothan, who had fractured the neck of femur of the right hip joint in an accident, they knew that replacing his hip joint will be the best solution. But the task ahead was not simple as the patient had undergone a heart transplant three years ago. “The patient was on immunosuppressants. We had to take into consideration a number of factors as he had a cardiac transplant. There was anaesthetic risk and need for a shorter duration of surgery. We had to reduce the duration of anaesthesia and surgical time. As he was on immunosuppressants, there was also the possibility of infection,” said N. Deen Mohammed Ismail, director of Institute of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, RGGGH.