Patient 1
The patient age 60 years old was unable to walk properly , wherein after thorough examination it was noticed that he had a history of fall ,after tripping over stairs more than three months ago. Due to which he was unable to walk ,stand on his toes and raise the heel. The diagnosis of ruptured Achilles tendon was confirmed by ultrasound and MRI scanning.
Patient was limping and hobbling around in the house with a feeling of weakness in his left ankle and could not lift his heel while walking.
Patient also had uncontrolled diabetes which in itself was another problem for wound healing.
The patient was successfully operated upon by Dr. Patankar & his team in Sahyadri Hospital. Achilles tendon is the largest tendon in the body situated behind the ankle and is very important for walking. If ruptured ,the person doesn’t have power in the ankle region to walk properly. The challenges here were patients old age & being heavily diabetic the wound healing is compromised, poor blood supply at the site of surgery, the injury being chronic (more than 3 months old) added to the difficulty due to adhesions & a large gap between torn tendon ends.
Patient said,” Three months after surgery I am able to walk very well with minimal support. I am carrying out my entire daily activities very well. All credit goes to Dr. Harshad Patankar. I would like to say many thanks to him.”
Patient 2
A young Sri Lankan boy who is a professional Motocross racer. When he was 12 years old he was participating in a Motocross event in Pune in Nov.2017. He grabbed 1st Runner up position in his first 5 races & overall 2nd Runner up position at the event.
Unfortunately he had a serious fall in his last race. He sustained a very bad fracture of his right hip bone (fracture neck femur). It was a challenge as these fractures are very rare in young children, they usually occur in old people where we generally replace the head with an artificial metal ball but at such a young age the fracture needs to be fixed which is a challenge as fixation should be in an anatomically perfect position since the blood supply of the head of femur is at risk & which can be further damaged during surgery.
He was operated by Dr.Patankar & his team in Sahyadri Hospital Shastrinagar, Pune, the fracture was fixed with screws & plate. He was back to training 3 months later & in less than a year after the surgery he took part in a Motocross event in Sri Lanka & won the Junior Championship in 2018