Doctors at a city hospital performed a two-stage surgery to cure a 12-year-old Kashish who was suffering from osteomyelitis (a rare but serious infection of the bone) and reconstructed her femur shaft by using her mother’s calf bone (fibula graft).

Doctors at Aakash Healthcare, Dwarka said that five weeks after her trauma, she was diagnosed with chronic osteomyelitis acquired during the surgery of the right femur following which she complained of pain and swelling of right thigh along with fever. She was admitted into the Aakash hospital on 16 August and was found to have deformity and pain in thigh, crepitation (a crackling sound upon movement), and a painful range of motion.

“In the first stage of surgery, dead part of the femur bone was removed and an antibiotic spacer was placed at that site. After a gap of six weeks, the spacer was removed and her femoral shaft (thigh bone) was reconstructed using fibula graft taken from her mother in the second stage of surgery,” Dr Aashish Chaudhry, Director of Orthopaedics, Joint Replacement and Spine Surgery said.

 “She was brought just in time as osteomyelitis is a rare but serious infection that affects about 2 out of every 10,000 people. Our biggest challenge was to control the 15 cm infection of a body part which is the longest human bone. Her condition required an open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) of the femur as it is a definitive procedure that facilitates early mobilisation and reduces risk of further infection,” he said.

Osteomyelitis affects about two out of every 10,000 people and can cause necrosis (loss of blood supply) to the affected bone and bone tissue death by disrupting the flow of blood to the affected area.