Health Minister Ma. Subramanian inaugurated a bone bank at Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) and Cobalt-60 therapy facility at Regional Cancer Centre at Balarengapuram, in Madurai on December 21.
Accompanied by Minister for Commercial Taxes P. Moorthi, Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan and Madurai Collector S. Aneesh Sekhar, Mr. Subramanian inaugurated the bone bank, the first of its kind in any government or private hospital in south Tamil Nadu. A similar facility was recently opened at Cancer Institute in Chennai.
The Minister said the new facility has come up at a cost of ₹40 lakh in the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma. Subramanian inaugurates tele-cobalt facility in Madurai
“With increase in incidences of high velocity injuries and advancements in cancer management, the need for bone grafts and tissue allografts have increased,” Mr. Subramanian said. This will greatly help the poor patients of southern districts, he added.
Bones can be grafted from a living donor or from a deceased person.
Among the living donors are patients who undergo joint replacement or total knee replacement surgeries or amputation surgeries, said Dr. V.R. Ganesan, Professor of Orthopaedics.
The bones that are grafted from deceased persons, within 24 hours, are processed and preserved with deep freezing facility.
Such processed and preserved bones can be used for cancer patients. Besides, application of tissue allografts in conditions such as spinal fusion surgeries, multi-ligament reconstruction, addressing bone defects in revision joint replacement surgeries, post-traumatic bone loss reconstruction.
In the absence of bone bank, hospitals were dependent on bone substitutes which are inferior to allografts yet very expensive.
“The bone bank is a boon to the people of south Tamil Nadu,” said Dr. Ganesan.
