Chennai, Feb 22: Chennai-based SIMS Hospital has put an end to 38-year-old Tanzanian patient’s pain and misery of 14 years caused by a more than 1 kg weighing Ameloblastoma in the lower jaw.
Lack of early medical intervention and diagnostic facility in his country, made it difficult for him to chew and eat his food, which in turn affected his overall quality of life significantly.
With a defective and continuously increasing lump in the jawbone, the Tanzanian patient was referred to SIMS, Vadapalani, by his Government for a holistic treatment.
Speaking on the medical condition and the technical procedure followed during the treatment, SIMS head (Craniofacial, Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery), Dr K Sridhar said, ”Our first assessment revealed a huge ball sized tumour that was causing severe pain, swelling and facial deformity for the Tanzanian patient. With initial screenings though, we diagnosed the lump to be an Ameloblastoma that required complex surgical correction, given its unusual size.”
”It required a reconstruction of the entire mandible including both sides of the jaw. This necessitated a 4 piece reconstruction having different angulation and dimension. A complex virtual planning in computer was required to have a final result for a natural appearance. This required a team approach having reconstructive plastic surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, specialists in implantology and a computer engineer, apart from aneasthesia team. Thus began the whole treatment process of transferring a virtual plan to clinical operation with a holistic approach to help that Tanzanian patient regain his normal life, to eat well, become more socially acceptable sans the stigma,” he said.
”The meticulous preparation with the key advanced 3-Dimensional CT techniques of medical image processing and printing, planning of tumor resection, and fibular resection for graft harvesting, graft shaping, and fixation, as well as planning, designing and fabrication of the templates for clinical realisation of the plan, all were discussed to the last details. Such fabricated virtual model significantly improves the quality and efficiency of the surgery, with less time-consumed at the operation theatre and the patient satisfaction with both the recovery of oral function and appearance,” he said.