First balloon kyphoplasty at Tanda hospital

Ashok Raina

Kangra, February 7

Dr Rajendra Prasad Govt Medical College at Tanda has become the first medical college in the state to conduct a major balloon kyphoplasty surgery conducted by the Department of Neurosurgery.

Dr Bhanu Awasthi, Principal, medical college, today said it was a matter of pride for the college to become the first institution to begin this procedure. He said Dr Amit Joshi, head of the department, conducted the rare procedure on Saturday.

Dr Awasthi said the balloon kyphoplasty was a minimally invasive spine procedure used to treat compression fractures of spine in which bone cement is injected into fractured vertebra after restoring the height of vertebra using inflatable balloons using just two incisions of 5mm.

He said the procedure was performed on a patient who had compression fracture of twelfth thoracic vertebra (backbone) which was causing focal kyphosis (humpback). The patient was discharged yesterday.