India is becoming a top destination for joint replacement surgery and healing technology due to the expertise of doctors and the low-cost involved in the procedure, health experts said on Monday.
They also said that India is expected to have a $2 billion industry serving overseas patients by the end of 2015.
"Over 1,00,000 patients from across the globe visit India every year for the high end knee surgeries. The Indian government is easing restrictions on citizens of many countries, making it easier for them to travel to India without andy visa issues and fewer restrictions," said Gargi Ghosh, a prominent physiotherapist currently associated with ActivOrtho rehabilitation centre.
She said that in India, with every new advancement in the transplant process, ways are being developed to minimize the invasive nature of the procedure and to reduce further complications arising from the same.
"India is fast emerging as a centre of excellence in the field of joint replacement surgery. It is not only patients from smaller cities or rural areas that come to several metro cities to have their knee replacement surgeries performed but also patients from several international destinations," said Mudit Khanna, consultant orthopaedics at Mumbai-based Wockhardt hospital.
He said that even if there was a lack of professional physiotherapist in the hospitals across India, the post surgery consultations given by the orthopaedicians were such that the patients were able to understand the dos and don'ts that helped them recover fast.
The medical experts stated that half of the total patients coming to India from abroad were the one who were facing difficulty in recovering due the improper post surgery treatment being given.
"Physical therapy after a Knee Replacement Surgery is as important as the surgery itself. Consequences of not adhering to proper defined rehabilitation and physical therapy program could be prolonged and persistent pain, inability to achieve enough bending (flexion) of the knee or inability to straighten the knee fully," said Khanna.
According to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), over 2 lakh knee replacements and equal number of hip replacement procedures are performed in India which requires good amount of rehabilitation post surgery whereas this is not conveyed to the patients before the procedure.
"As the procedure is less invasive and with no complications, healing process becomes much faster and rehabilitation can be initiated at an early stage, which in turns gives best result possible postoperative. Deficits in the range of motion and pain syndromes can be avoided as well," said Sumit Arora, a senior physiotherapist with ActivOrtho.