Ready to make a towering presence

BANGALORE: “I love  playing football and now I have crossed my fingers and am waiting for the day to go back to the field,” says eight-year-old Mithun who recently underwent congenital scoliosis surgery, for the correction of the abnormal curving of the spine.The surgery which took two-and-a-half-hours was conducted at Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital on May 20 making it a pioneer in scoliosis surgery in Karnataka.Mithun’s father Mohan Venkataraju from Raichur who works with KPCL said that when his son was just two years old, they realised that he could not walk properly and there was an abnormal curving of the spine sideways. “We immediately took him to a hospital in Mysore. They referred us to Jain Hospital,” he added.The typical symptoms of scoliosis are unequal shoulders, head not centred directly above the pelvis, appearance of a raised prominent hip, uneven waist, leaning of entire body to one side and rib prominence on one side. Speaking to the media here on Tuesday, Dr Mahesh Bijjawara, spine surgeon, Jain Hospital, said, “People usually seek medical treatment in the late stages of this condition due to ignorance, that makes the surgical correction of advanced spinal deformity very complicated or impossible at times. A timely corrective surgery can be life-changing for the patient”.According to Dr Bijjawara, the reason growth preserved surgery was chosen over bracing for Mithun was, besides the degree of the curve, the curve was progressive with worsening trunk imbalance which made his upper body shift to the right by three to four centimetres over his pelvis. Bracing does not work in such progressive congenital curves.AIIMS, New Delhi was the pioneer in pedicle screw-based growth rod surgeries four years ago, and later it was started in hospitals in Mumbai, Coimbatore and Chennai. According to the estimates one to two per cent of 1,000 children are affected by congenital scoliosis. Mithun was discharged on the fifth day. He needs to visit the hospital every six months till he is 12 years old for simple corrective surgeries.