Vadodara: Around two and a half months back, Surtan Rathwa, a tribal from Chhota Udepur district had met with a tragic road accident in which he lost talus – an important bone of the ankle joint. In majority of such bases if the talus bone is injured permanently either the patient’s foot gets fixed at 90 degrees angle or the leg below the knee has to be amputated.But thanks to a complex surgery performed at a city-based hospital, Rathwa can now move around like a normal person.“When Rathwa was brought to us, his talus bone was not in place. The option left was amputation. But, I thought of using the concept of 3D printing technology to prepare body parts with titanium and fit that in his leg which can help the patient,” said surgeon Dr Rajiv Shah, who initiated the 3D scan of the normal talus bone of the other leg of the patient.Meanwhile, the next day, Rathwa’s relatives also handed over the injured and ruptured talus bone part to the doctors.“I adopted 3D scan and got the titanium talus bone developed. To maintain normal condition, patient's ankle part was filled with a special kind of cement, till the talus bone was developed,” said Shah, adding that it took around one and a half month after which the titanium talus bone was received.“It was fitted in place of cement in patient’s ankle through complex surgery,” said Shah, who performed the rare surgery at a private hospital.Shah, a foot and ankle surgeon, has been invited as an expert speaker by various international forums, after he conducted this innovative surgery.

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