Meet Hafsa Pawaskar a 24 year old regular Mumbai working girl who had to was literally bedridden due to a side affect from a skin infection treatment but was eventually back on her feet due to a new advancement in hip replacement surgery.
Like every normal Mumbaikar Hafsa was going about her daily life, until one day she suffered from a severe skin infection. Needless to say she consulted a local skin specialist. The doctor recommended her to take certain medications.
But when the medications did not show any results the skin specialist switched to a more aggressive approach using a course of injections for treating the skin infection. After the completing the skin treatment course her skin infection was completely cured. However, little did she know that this aggressive treatment would change her life for the worse.
Having cured her skin infection she was going about her daily life. However, after about 3 months she started feeling a slight radiating pain in her leg, string at the hip and running down the leg. Like most people she ignored the pain assuming that it was due to a miss step or over excretion in the regular Mumbai grind. In about a couple of months the pain
only grew more persistent and more excruciating. She tried a few painkillers but they only provided temporary relief. The pain in the leg specifically the hip Joint becomes unbearable and eventually she had trouble even walking. As she was not able to walk and having no relief from hip pain, she had to eventually quit her job.
Alarmed by this situation her family took her to ALL INDIA INSTITUTE OF PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION, Haji Ali.
The orthopaedic doctors at AIIMPR conducted various diagnostic tests to identify the root cause of her Hip joint pain. A detailed MRI of the hip joint revealed that she was suffering from Avascular Necrosis of the Hip Joint. A detailed history taking revealed that the hip pain was due to the steroids in the injection she had taken for her skin infection treatment.
Excessive steroid use had triggered avascular necrosis of the femoral head of the Hip joint.
Avascular necrosis (AVN), also called osteonecrosis or bone infarction, is death of bone tissue due to interruption of the blood supply https://www.niams.nih.gov/health-topics/osteonecrosis. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2784583/ Eventhough early stage AVN can be treated with physiotherapy and rehabilitation; unfortunately for Hafsa, her situation was a bit worse where the femoral head was severely damaged.
Nonethless, as Hip replacement surgery cannot be suggest for such young patients the orthopaedics at AIIPMR suggested her to undergo Physiotherapy and Medication.
This course of treatment helped her get some relief but after a few more month’s her condition deteriorated further and she was literally bed ridden. Being a very young patient, surgeons ruled out hip replacement surgery. This was because; most conventional hip implants do not provide the desired surgical outcomes in young patients. Hafsa and her family consulted many other orthopaedic surgeons when they eventually came to know about Anatomical hip replacement introduced by Dr. Shailendra Patil in Mumbai. It was then that they consulted Dr. Shailendra Patil who confirmed that she was an ideal candidate for AHR. He assured that after the AHR she will be able to go back to her normal life.
On the very next day of surgery Hafsa was able to walk with a walker in a couple of weeks she was able to walk on her own. While in a month’s times she was back to her normal life. She was no longer bedridden and today she is back to her old life.
There is a growing incidence of steroid induced AVN in young people both male and female. Hence, if anyone is going for any injectable skin disease treatment one should confirm with their doctors the amount of steroids that will be administered and if it will have any long term consequence. While, men who take steroids for body building should first consult a physician before using them to prevent suffering from AVN in the future.
Finally, if you know any young person who is in a similar situation that Hafsa once was, help us reach out to them or share this article with them so they too can overcome AVN of the hip joint and lead a normal life.
