By the time 67-year-old Mohammed Sharifa Ali Obaid from Yemen had come to see Dr. Jatinder Singh Jaggi as both of her knees were severely damaged by arthritis. An avid florist, Sharifa has loved taking walks in open fields observing nature since the 1970s. “In those days, walking shoes did not exist. I walked during my early days in cheap rubber slippers. When someone asks me, ‘what made your knees so bad?’ I trace it to back then.”
Prior to meeting with Dr. Jatinder Jaggi at Max Super specialty Hospital, Gurgaon, Sharifa had learned about minimally invasive knee replacement and felt that, given her activity level and desire to return to her gardens as quickly as possible, it was the best way to go. On 15 April, 2018, Dr. Jaggi performed the procedure on both her knees. Within a week, Sharifa was checked out – although still under-rehabilitation– but with a strong longing to return to her home country and return to her beautiful gardens.
Sharifa's son Nasser
“I was thrilled,” she said. “Before surgery, it was an effort to walk for 10 min. I’d walk and then look for a spot to sit down on because I couldn’t stand the excruciating pain much longer."
In less than five weeks after bilateral minimally invasive knee replacement surgery at best orthopedic hospital in India, Sharifa was back doing what she loved and already able to walk the one and a half kilometer walk-around at the local park - something she had not done in over a year. Today, she continues to pursue her interest in flowers and tends to her gardens. She does her usual 1 km walk happily and without the nagging pain in her knees.
Mohammed is not alone in her extraordinary results. Patients of Dr. Jaggi and her colleagues repeatedly bask in the freedom provided by new knees and the ease of recovery made possible by the newer, less invasive techniques.
“Traditionally, knee replacement was done through incisions that were about 8 to 12 inches long,” notes Dr. Jaggi. “Then, to get exposure to the knee, you would need to turn the kneecap.” Older instruments combined with technical aspects of the procedure were forcing surgeons to operate through this large incision. The new tools and techniques avoid this. “The implants are the same, but now we can do less cutting to the soft tissues deep around the knee,” adds Dr. Jaggi. “We can spread the muscle instead, and slide the kneecap out of the way. This avoids twisting of the tendons.”
In a call with her case manager, Sharifa expresses her deep gratitude on how she successfully overcame one of the biggest hurdles in her life. “Nothing short of a miracle...that is how I would describe my double knee replacement surgery with one of the top 10 orthopedic surgeons for knee replacement in India - Dr. Jaggi. I would also like to thank Vaidam for their constant support during hospitalization and periods of rehabilitation.”