Typically young patients tend to be affected by hip arthritis in India, says Dr.Venkatachalam.
Avacular necrosis, ankylosing spondylitis, protrusio acetabuli, dysplasia, Perthes disease, septic arthritis are some of the conditions compelling young patients to go in for hip replacement in India. Since all these patients are young we need hard bearings like Ceramic or metal. Metal resurfacings which gained popularity in the last decade fell in popularity over the second half of 2010 due to adverse effects. During the last decade we saw the rise and fall of metal bearings in Hip resurfacings and metal on metal hip replacements. A medical device company Depuy was forced to recall its Hip resurfacing and replacement products ASR from the market. In India too, many young patients were falsely lured into this procedure by hyped up advertisement.
Over a short period of time many such patients developed allergic reactions, metal induced wear and loosening. They had to undergo a painful second operation.
The next decade of the 21st century is going to see ceramics play a big role in joint replacements particularly of the hip.
Ceramics have been in use in ship propellers, air craft for many years. Now a new class of ceramics called Delta ceramic has been introduced in artificial joints. These are more stronger and less brittle.
They can survive for very long periods in the body,says Dr.Venkatachalam. Incidentally Dr. Venkatachalam was the first surgeon to launch Ceramic coated knees or Oxinium knees in South India two and half years back. The first patient was a 34 year old Dutch patient with end stage knee arthritis. Since then many young patients have undergone Oxinium knee replacement by this surgeon.
This Ceramic hip replacement is pure ceramic unlike the knee which is Ceramic coated Oxinium.
