ameet pispati, m.d., orthopedic surgeon, jaslok hospital, mumbai, india
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A Hip Resurfacing and Computer Assisted Total Knee ReplacementPatient's Testimonial: It is my pleasure to confirm my complete satisfaction with the two excellent surgeries I had under the care of Doctor Ameet Pispati, Orthopedic Surgeon at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, India. My experiences with Doctor Pispati, before and after surgery, have been positive, informative and genuine. In 2006, I had two surgical procedures with Doctor Pispati. In April, my right hip had the Articular Surface Resurfacing (ASR) commonly known as Hip Resurfacing. I returned to Mumbai in December to have a Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) Total Knee Replacement on my left knee. I would recommend Doctor Pispati to anyone with an orthopedic disorder without reservation. I feel he is one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the world. My journey to Mumbai (Bombay) began in 1996 with a slight intermittent twinge in my right hip. In 1998, the intermittent twinge had become a regular discomfort that was diagnosed by my rheumatologist as arthritic deterioration of the cartilage in the right hip. The prognosis was that I would need a Total Hip Replacement (THR) within a few years. My doctor in Santa Cruz, California told me to go as long as I could before I had the THR because it would change my life and limit my mobility. The news was a blow to me. I was athletic with basketball, jogging and my passion of horseback riding. The doctor told me that basketball and jogging would definitely be out. He said horseback riding might be possible. Moving forward to 2005, I was finally at a point where my world had shrunk immensely in terms of my ability to get around. I was nearly ready to have my surgery as per my Santa Cruz doctor's advice to;"go as long as you can before having the surgery." (I have since learned that waiting is not a good idea for the THR procedure to have the best chance of full success.) As luck would have it, I was watching the "60 Minutes" television program one Sunday evening when the now famous show about medical tourism came on. The segment showed a woman from Florida who went to Chennai, India to have a procedure to repair a deteriorating hip joint that was not a THR and did not entail cutting the femur. It was the Hip Resurfacing procedure. That was the surgery that I had been searching to find. The procedure was being done in the US, but, only under a FDA trial. FDA trials are notoriously difficult to enter into as a patient. Less than a year later, I sent my hip X-ray to an orthopedic surgeon in Chennai to review to see if I were a candidate for Hip Resurfacing. Because of a cyst on the ball of the hip bone the Chennai surgeon responded curtly by email that I was not a candidate for Hip Resurfacing. The Chennai doctor said that I should pursue the course of THR. The news was very disappointing and depressing. Nevertheless, I continued my search for other doctors who may be doing the procedure. I researched the history of Hip Resurfacing and found that the concept was not really new, but had evolved and changed with the development of new materials and metallurgies. I also found that the procedure as most commonly done was developed in Birmingham, England. I also found that there were a few doctors who would approach cases with bone cysts or other possible complications with the proviso that the THR would be the fallback in case the Hip Resurfacing was not feasible. One such doctor was Doctor Ameet Pispati, who has gained a reputation in the Hip Resurfacing and international orthopedic community as someone to call on in complicated cases where a wealth of experience and skill in the surgery room would be a prudent idea. Doctor Pispati studied the procedure in England under the developers since the early nineties. I emailed Doctor Pispati about a week after I received what I thought was bad news from Chennai. Of course, I did not know that the negative response I received from Chennai was going to lead me to one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the world in Mumbai. Doctor Pispati rapidly responded to my email query. He answered all of my questions and sent along his resume of experience. I was duly impressed, elated and renovated in my desire to get my hip repaired without cutting the bone. Arrangements were made and I flew to Mumbai from California in mid April of 2006. I met Doctor Pispati the day I arrived. He called around 8:30 AM to greet me, give me a game plan for the day of medical test in preparation for the operation the next day and let me know that he would stop by around 10:00 AM. Everything he said he would do he did and the day went like clockwork. He called three times and came by twice on a day when he did several surgeries. He came by to evaluate my X-rays that were taken earlier that day. He said there was only a one or two percent chance of not being able to do the Hip Resurfacing. That information reassured me about my surgery. The following day I was operated on as scheduled. After the surgery, while in recovery, Doctor Pispati woke me to show me the X-ray of my new metal on metal Cobalt Chromium Hip Resurfacing implants. This type of patient care by a doctor is very rare in the West. The day after the surgery I was walking with a walker. The following week I walked up and down a flight of stairs with a cane. A week later I was out of the hospital and in a hotel in Mumbai preparing to take a tour of the southern state of Kerala and later the Taj Mahal in the north. Doctor Pispati gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him if there were any problems or questions that I needed answered. We also kept in touch by email throughout my stay in India. Computer Assisted Surgery (CAS) Before returning to Mumbai in December I already knew I had a world class surgeon to fix my knee. When I arrived Doctor Pispati told me that he added a new technology to his tool chest to provide an even higher plain of accuracy to his surgeries. He said only four or five orthopedic surgeons in the world had access to this new technology. I am aware, as are many, that medicine is not an exact science. Medicine, especially orthopedic surgery, is a mixture of science, art, skill and experience leading the judgment of the doctor on how to proceed. The more solid science you can bring into the mixture the more information you can present to the doctor the better judgment he can make. This is the case with CAS. The CAS computer gives an array of real time information to the doctor during surgery, such as the patient's: bone size and density, possible bone cut positions, angles, and sizes, as well as, recommendations for implant sizes. This type of information is invaluable when relayed during surgery because it saves time, provides an ongoing second opinion which the surgeon can glean information to assist with the choices made for a more accurate and successful outcome. Essentially, the CAS surgery maximizes the science and minimizes the art during the actual surgical procedure. For my Total Knee Replacement surgery, I was assured of having the best surgery that I could get anywhere in the world. I received the same high quality of care at Jaslok Hospital and the surgery was a complete success. Less than 24 hours after my surgery I changed to a larger room and walked, aided by a walker, over sixty feet. Within two days I was walking with only a cane. Four days after surgery I walked up and down the full hallway and a flight of stairs with the cane. One week after arriving in Mumbai, I walked out Jaslok Hospital with a new more flexible knee. I was told by my physical therapist at Jaslok Hospital that the results of my surgery were unusual in that my recovery was incredibly fast. I feel that the success of my surgery was due to Doctor Pispati and his use of the new Computer Assisted Surgery technology. Doctor Pispati is a gifted surgeon not only for his definitive skill, attention to detail and ongoing research, but, also for his desire to seek out and stay on the cutting edge of new technologies in the field of orthopedic surgery. For the reasons outlined here I, without reservation, recommend Doctor Ameet Pispati to anyone for orthopedic surgical procedures or consultancy on such procedures. |
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The above image is not from an MRI. It is a real time image computer source of Doctor Ameet Pispati's patient during a Hip Resurfacing at Jaslok Hospital. The new CAS system is only at five or six hospitals worldwide. The cost is about 10% more to use the CAS system for a hip or knee surgery. The benefits are more exact options during surgery for the doctor and patient.
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©2007 Ameet Pispati, MD. All Rights Reserved |
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