ISIC Doctors modify bone surgery to correct knock knees in young woman

Knock knees is prevalent in malnourished children and can be caused by rickets (vitamin D deficiency, especially in these COVID-19 times when children are not encouraged to play outside in sunlight), an injury or infection affecting the knees or leg bones or genetic conditions that affect the development of the bones or joints, doctors said.

The woman (name withheld) underwent the surgery for knock knees recently at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), as doctors modified the standard surgical procedure to correct the bone deformity, the hospital said in a statement.

This procedure also reduces cost, left a less visible scar and has faster recovery, it claimed.

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The ISIC doctors in a media interaction on Tuesday also claimed that in the past years such operations have been done on 10 women in the age group of 16-22 years -- eight of them had deformity in both the knees while the rest two had it in one knee, it said.

"The patients develop the deformity due to rickets or idiopathic (unknown) reasons. Since post-operative scar was a concern among their parents, we modified the process to reduce the size of the incision – it is only 5 cm as compared to 25 cm in the main surgery. Besides, we made the incision near the upper fold of the knee, at inner thigh which helped in reducing the visibility of the scar as well as minimal blood loss," Dr Surbhit Rastogi, associate consultant Orthopedics, ISIC, said.

The surgery is simplified to be performed without specialized equipment or set-up, making it affordable to a large number of people in weaker socio-economic conditions, the hospital said.

Through a small incision V-shape osteotomy (cutting and reshaping of bones) is done at the junction of metaphysis and diaphysis (lower end of thigh bone), and the deformity is corrected, the doctor said.

It is an inherently stable osteotomy so does not require fixation with an implant, he said.

The doctor said that a Plaster of Paris cast was used in her surgery to stabilize the leg and promote bone healing instead of using a plate.

"Genu valgum (knock knees) can be corrected by surgery, but it requires specialized team and advanced equipment. This adds to the cost of surgery and requires deft surgeons," Dr Deepak Raina, senior consultant and chief of hip service, at the hospital said. PTI KND ANB