Dr. Mayilvahanan Natarajan, head of the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Madras Medical College, and a group of surgeons belonging to the same department, recently performed a four hour long cadaver bone and joint transplantation surgery. It is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country.

A 22-year-old youth named Sivakumar, a teashop worker at Tambaram in the city, was suffering from chronic bone cancer in his left femoral area, and doctors performed the surgery to remove the tumour and replaced the defective bone with a bone and joint aligraft costing $ 150, imported from Sri Lanka.

"The patient is now in a stable condition and recovering well. He will be able to walk with the help of crutches within two weeks. It will take about three months for full recovery as the human bones and the cadaver have to join firmly, and by that time he can resume his normal life like anyone," said Dr. Mayilvahanan Natrajan while explaining the health status of the patient.

He said bone cancer patients or accident victims had to undergo expensive surgeries or amputation involving lakhs of money. Insertion of costly stainless steel metallic prosthesis or Titanium prosthesis is the routine procedure in those surgeries, and chances of full recovery are minimal as a good percentage of the patients experience difficulty in walking.

With the development of the bone and joint alligraft transplantation procedures, complete recovery is possible and the cost involved is comparatively very less. Dr.Mayilvahanan said this surgery could lead to techniques developed for performing limb transplantation surgeries.

The team of doctors who performed the rare surgery included Vidya Sagar, R.Selvaraj, Sudhakar Williams, S.H.Jaheer Hussain, S.Natarajan and Silamban.