World’s 1st iPod Navigation Hip Resurfacing Surgery performed at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Chennai, by Dr. Vijay C Bose

The highly-skilled medical teams at Apollo Hospitals, frontrunners in harnessing the symbiosis of technology and medical advancements have now successfully performed the World’s 1st iPod Navigation Hip Resurfacing Surgery at Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Chennai. They were also the third in the world to perform a Knee Replacement Surgery using the iPod Navigation technique.

On the 19 April 2011, Mr. Guy Williams, a basketball coach from the United States and Mrs. Niranjana Shah, a housewife from Chennai underwent a hip resurfacing surgery and knee replacement surgery respectively at Apollo Specialty Hospitals, Chennai. The common factor in both these surgeries was that an iPod was used to “navigate” the surgeries thereby increasing the surgical accuracy.

Commenting on the occasion Dr. Vijay C. Bose, Senior Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon, Apollo Speciality Hospital, who had performed these Joint Reconstructive Surgeries at Apollo Specialty Hospitals said “iPod navigation for Joint Reconstructive Surgeries marks a unique technological milestone for Apollo Speciality Hospitals, and also an era of universally applicable precision surgery for hip and knee replacements.”

Dr. Vijay C. Bose added, “The iPod navigation developed in collaboration with Smith & Nephew Inc, promises to be a ground breaking change in the way joint replacements navigation will be done in the future.”

The Ipod navigation in contrast to earlier standard navigation systems represents significant miniaturization, affordability and ease of use. The traditional systems had bulky towers stationed in the operating room which received the signals from the surgical instruments and processed the information before displaying a ‘navigation map’ for the Surgeon on a Flat screen panel mounted on the tower. The size of the machinery and distance from the operating table made it uncomfortable for the Surgeon to use it on a routine basis. The iPod navigation viewed on the iPod screen is in the hands of the Surgeon and is directly over the surgical wound. Thus it offers a more intimate interaction with the local bone and soft tissues that being navigated, increasing the accuracy. This is a prime example of technological innovations in mass market gadgets benefiting medical science. With this pathbreaking medical milestone, Apollo Speciality Hospitals has ushered in the next generation of navigated joint replacements for the hip and knee.