Country seeing arthritis epidemic, says surgeon

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 8

Knee arthritis is expected to emerge as the fourth most common cause of physical disability in India in the next one decade, said Dr Vikram I Shah at a free orthopaedic camp in Sector 20 here.

As many as 75 patients were screened at the camp organised by Shalby Multi-Specialty Hospital, Mohali, where it’s MD and joint replacement surgeon Dr Vikram I Shah’s team led by Dr Naveen Mittal, a joint replacement surgeon, gave consultations on knee, hip pain and other orthopaedic problems. During the camp, a physiotherapy service, BMD and uric acid test were also conducted.

According to Dr Shah, the country is seeing an arthritis epidemic. “The incidence of knee arthritis in Indian population is believed to be as much as 15 times higher than what is found in Western nations,” he remarked.

While this is a huge jump from a mere 350 knee surgeries that were performed in India in 1994, the unmet demand in the country would be a staggering 1 crore knee replacements each year, considering the huge size of population and the propensity of Indians for knee arthritis, he pointed out.

Compared to this, India will be seeing just about 1 million knee replacements every year by 2022. Knee replacements today involve much lower infection rates and shorter hospital stays, asserted Dr Shah.