Knee replacement with new implant completed successfully at GMC

Speaking to media persons, department head Dr S M Bandekar, who also performed the operation, said it was his dream to bring the US manufactured implant to Goa, and that too in a government hospital. 

Costs of the implant paid for by the patient’s insurance, and having received free health services at the GMC, the operation to replace the knee took only an hour and the difference was immediate, said Dr Bandekar.

“Conventional knee implants only give patients 80 to 82 percent satisfaction and the Attune knee implant is known to give a 95 percent satisfaction rate. The patient who didn’t need extra blood was operated under local anesthesia and post surgery was already showing signs of improvement,” he said. 

The Attune knee implant that has been used on 1,600 patients in India is the first time it was used in a knee replacement surgery in Goa. The implant is gaining popularity the country over though this year there were 15,000 patients still using the conventional knee implants in the country.

At GMC 200 knee and hip replacements are conducted every year. Dr Bandekar said that while the Attune knee implant costs over Rs 1 lakh in comparison with the conventional implant that costs between Rs 70,000 and Rs 80,000, medical insurance takes care of the costs. He also said this could prove to be an example of how well medical tourism is for the State.

The implant that was initially designed in 2003 by a group of 100 engineers, 35 orthopedic designers and 12 universities from all over the world and first reached India in April 2014.