GREETING TEACHERS: Visiting oncologist Kam Narayan of Australia (extreme left) and orthopaedist Sheo B. Tibrewal of the United Kingdom (third from left),with K. Meer Mustafa Hussain, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, and Mayi l Vahanan Natarajan (extreme right), head, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Madras Medical College, at a function at the university on Tuesday. — PHOTO: S.S.KUMAR

CHENNAI : The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University has conferred honorary professorship on two Indian professors settled abroad for their work in the field of medicine. Vice-Chancellor K. Meer Mustafa Hussain presented the honours on Tuesday.

Professors Sheo B. Tibrewal, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, London, and Kam Narayan, a consultant physician, clinical haematologist and oncologist practising in Australia, have been training medical students and junior doctors in India in their areas of specialisation for the past decade.

Mayil Vahanan Natarajan, head, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Madras Medical College, introduced the two professors, who visit India every year to teach the students. Dr. Tibrewal spoke on medical advances in knee replacement surgery. His research work now is on how to select patients to ensure good post-surgery results. For the newer methods to be successful, surgeons must observe rules stringently while selecting patients.

Those, with minimal pain at rest, a relatively sedentary lifestyle, and presenting localised disease, should be chosen, he said. In future, computer-assisted surgery and tissue engineering would revolutionise the way arthritic knee is treated, he said. Dr. Narayan, alumnus of Madras Medical College, spoke about his interest in improving treatment methods for cancer. He explained how aspirin was developed and now a common drug. Similarly, treatment for cancer had evolved through research and clinical trials. Treatment methods such as chemotherapy and radiation attacked not only the cancerous cells but the good cells too, resulting in side-effects. The future of cancer treatment would focus only on attacking the cancerous cells.

Clotting

He is now studying the process of clotting in cancer patients. People with cancer die not of the disease, but due to complications caused by cancer, he says, urging students to take up basic research.

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