Successful scoliosis surgery conducted at ATH

ABBOTTABAD: The Neurosurgery Department of Ayub Teaching Hospital on Thursday conducted successful “scoliosis surgery” that lasted about eight hours.

Shakeela Bibi, a 17-year-old girl from Afghanistan, was operated for scoliosis by a team led by neurosurgeons Dr Abdul Aziz Khan and Dr Ehtisham Afridi.

“The Neurosurgery Department of Ayub Teaching Hospital became the first Neurological Department in any government hospital of KP to conduct such surgery,” said Dr Abdul Aziz.

Living with her deformity, called ‘scoliosis’ in medical terminology for the last 17 years, Shakeela Bibi faced an acute backache.

Dr Abdul Aziz, associate professor at Neurosurgery Department, said that the scoliosis is a medical condition in which a person’s spine has a sideways curve. “The curve is usually “S”- or “C”-shaped. In some, the degree of curve is stable, while in others, it increases over time. This disease affects girls more severely than boys,” he added.

Dr Ehtisham, assistant professor, said the patient came to Neurosurgery Out-Patient Department with cosmetic deformity of back and severe backache.

“We put 18 screws of titanium in the bone around her spine during the eight hours long surgery to correct the curvature using two rods of one foot each. The patient is completely stable and will be able to walk in one to two weeks. This surgery is very expensive outside, but here in our hospital it is free of cost,” he added.

Eight neurosurgeons and around 10 to 15 training medical officers are providing accident and emergency services, OPD, wards and surgery facilities, free of cost to the patients at the Neurosurgery Department of the ATH. In the last 11 months this year, around 1000 surgeries of brain and spine have been performed, and a few very complicated surgeries as well. Besides this, 3,500 patients have been admitted to the department and thousands of patients were provided the OPD services.