The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : New surgical procedure to treat cerebral palsy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 31, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

New surgical procedure to treat cerebral palsy

By Shyama Rajagopal

KOCHI, OCT. 30. There is no programme yet to manage cerebral palsy in spite of the fact it accounts for the maximum number of cases of disability in the country, said Deepak Sharan, Bangalore-based consultant in Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation.

Talking to The Hindu here, Dr. Sharan said there were no parameters to measure disability in a person. Disability certificates were issued quite arbitrarily, he said.

Many a time, it was noticed that disability of a person measured at one centre differed with the result from another centre, he said.

Setting parameters

Dr. Sharan, who is consultant to the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and also the Disability Commissioner of Karnataka, said the Government had appointed a team of specialists, including developmental paediatricians, paediatric neurosurgeon, paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, physio therapist, occupational therapist and other specialists, to set parameters to define disability.

The Childhood Disability Group of the Indian Academy of Paediatricians would provide the basic structure to define disability and provide a measuring yardstick.

The Government also has plans to modify the definition of cerebral palsy, said Dr. Sharan, who is part of a five-member expert committee on cerebral palsy and autism under the Union Ministry.

There are about 5-8 million people in the country afflicted with cerebral palsy, he said. The Spastic Society of India and other NGOs provided more of vocational training to cerebral palsy-afflicted children. Medical treatment of cerebral palsy was non-existent, he said.

He said the perception of an attack of cerebral palsy had been linked to difficult labours. But, now the theory has been extended to say that a child with disabilities could also lead to difficult labours, he added. The incidence of cerebral palsy has been measured at 2-2.5 out of 1,000 births. At a disability screening camp held in Bangalore in 2002-03, it was found that out of 1,000 disabled cases, 75 per cent of locomotor disabilities were due to cerebral palsy.

Advanced surgery

Conventional methods of correcting cerebral palsy through surgery were not generally successful, said Dr. Sharan, who has a Fellowship in Paediatric Orthopaedics from the U.K. and is also a member of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. According to him, a poorly done operation is worse than no operation at all.

After a five-year training in the U.K. in the most advanced technique in managing cerebral palsy called Orthopaedic Selective Spasticity Control Surgery (OSSCS) using an advanced computer aided three-dimensional analysis of muscle function, Dr. Sharan has performed about 45 surgeries in the last three years in Bangalore, all of which have boosted his confidence to make available such surgery to more people.

OSSCS is not a technique but a principle devised by the Japanese orthopaedic surgeon, Takashi Matsuo, explains Dr. Sharan. About 30 muscles are involved in taking one step. In the case of a cerebral palsy-afflicted person, a few muscles fail to function.

All the dysfunctional muscles in a limb need to be identified and should be corrected in a single operation, he said. It also reduces the trauma of going through a number of surgeries, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section

New surgical procedure to treat cerebral palsy

Infam opposes move for Expressway

Federal Bank earns Rs. 48-crore profit in first half

Organic farmers' meet begins tomorrow

Mortuary complex at GH within six months

Bus staff strike work

Seminar on cinema and art concludes

Science awareness camps planned

Pleasure trip for orphans

Around the City

In Kochi Today