The Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital (JDWNRH) in Thimphu successfully completed its first-ever Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery earlier this week, a service that was not previously available in the country. The ACL reconstruction surgery is a procedure that doctors use to replace a torn ligament in the knee. It is one of the common injuries that sports enthusiasts incur.
The ACL is an important structure that helps the knee move. An ACL injury makes the knee less stable.
“ACL reconstruction surgery is a keyhole surgery which means the hole that we make to do this surgery is as big as a keyhole. And then we put small cameras as big as four millimetres in diameter through two holes made through the skin. We look at the visual on the computer and then we do this whole surgery just through these two keyholes. So what we do is we take a tendon from another part of the patient’s body, we harvest it and we put it inside to replace the ligament because the ligament cannot be repaired, it can only be replaced. That’s why it’s called reconstruction surgery,” said Dr Santiram Dhakal, the Sports Medicine & Arthroscopic Surgeon with the JDWNRH.
With the surgery now available in the hospital, patients will no longer be referred to India.
“The surgery actually is technically demanding and then is a steep learning curve meaning difficult to learn. And that is the reason why this kind of surgeries are very expensive. So when we send our patients to India, they will incur the expenditure for the surgery but also out of pocket expenditure from the family who accompany them. So it’s a big burden. We can now save that money. It’s one more field of independence in the field of surgery in our country,” he added.
According to the Bhutan Football Federation’s media spokesperson, ACL injury is becoming common among footballers. Four national players were sent to India for surgery last year. The federation spent around Nu 200,000 to 300,000 per person for the surgery.
And as per the hospital’s records, there are some 45 people waiting for ACL reconstruction surgery. The hospital plans to conduct at least one surgery a week after the nationwide vaccination campaign.
Sonam Pem
