The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Shoulder arthroscopy performed on American national

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 14, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Shoulder arthroscopy performed on American national

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The first American to undergo arthroscopic shoulder surgery in Chennai was introduced to the press at Venkataeswara Hospitals in Nandanam, here on Friday. A.K. Venkatachalam, orthopaedic surgeon, who performed the surgery, said it was a complicated keyhole operation, performed by inserting a four-millimetre camera into the shoulder joint.

The surgery involved the repair of the rotator cuff, a group of tendons attaching the shoulder blade to the arm bone (humerus). These tendons, which cannot heal their injuries on their own, can be torn by accidents in the young and by deterioration in the elderly. It is fixed by arthroscopy that involves the fixing of anchor sutures in the bone.

Dave Bryce Hurd, a civil construction engineer in his late forties from North Carolina, U.S., came to India since he could not afford the surgery there. The cost of the surgery here, including costs of hotel accommodation and flight tickets, was about a tenth of what it would cost him at home, he said.

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