Sometimes babies are born with a minor orthopedic deformity in feet where the sole of the foot is turned inwards and the heel is drawn up. This is referred to as club foot and when babies grow up, they tend to walk on their ankles and bend on their sides while walking. Club foot is reported in one out of every 1000 live births and the cases are more commonly found in boys than in girls. The deformity can be diagnosed either at birth or at antenatal scan during pregnancy. It can however be successfully rectified without surgery if its treatment begins immediately after the birth as doctors can advantage of the suppleness and elasticity of tissues in the newborn and give it a correct shape.

MaxHealthcare runs a sub-speciality programme in correcting club feet by dedicated orthopedic doctors. The doctors ideally prescribe casts and plaster treatment within two weeks of birth. Ponseti method is the most widely accepted method to correct club feet. A plaster cast is put on the feet six to eight times to achieve a correct degree of manipulation. As a result, the displaced bones are gradually brought in a normal alignment. This process can take around two months of bone and ligament manipulation. Surgery can also be done to adjust the tendons, ligaments and joints in the foot and remove all the deformities at the same time. This is usually performed when the baby is 9 months old. However, the foot might tend to return to its club foot position post surgeries if proper casts and braces are not used to keep the foot in place until one year post surgery.

Once these procedure are done, the baby when grows up, can run and walk normally and wear normal shoes and lead a perfectly normal life!

Obesity is generally considered as a disease of the well to do. A large percentage of population in the developed countries is suffering from obesity and its related problems. However, in the present era, this condition is emerging in developing countries too.  Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in India, with morbid obesity affecting five per cent of the nation’s inhabitants. The main reason for this is the increased consumption of unhealthy, processed food which has become more accessible as a result of foreign direct investments of eatery outlets in India. Genetically, Indians are susceptible to weight gain around the waist. In a study conducted by National Family Health Survey, Punjab was ranked as the state with 32 percent of obese people, followed by Kerela and Goa.

Owing to this trend, Bariatric surgery, commonly known as weight loss surgery, is becoming a commonplace at hospitals. This operation is performed on people who have body mass index (BMI) more than 40. The surgery involves stapling the stomach or re-routing small intestine to a stomach so as to decrease the absorption of nutrients and minerals by the body. This results in long-term weight loss, recovery from diabetes and improvement in cardiovascular condition.

The Institute is the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery at MaxHealthcare is aptly equipped with state of the art equipments and the surgery is performed by minimal access techniques so that the patient recovery is quicker and post-surgical complications are less. The department is so skilled that the head of the institute, Dr Pradeep Chowbey, was featured in the Limca Book of Records in from 2000 to 2009 for performing the largest series of laparoscopic biliary surgery (over 50000)!

As far as eye problems are concerned, poor eye-sight, cataract and glaucoma are common among people, with the latter two being common in people above the age of 55 years. Other than this, correction of squint and oculoplasty (evaluation of deformities and tumours of the eye) are also performed as per the patient’s need.

One of the safest procedures (and the most common procedure performed by Ophthalmologists) is Lasik (Laser in-situ keratomileusis) surgery. This surgery corrects myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism with the help of laser, thus eliminating dependency on glasses. Lasik is different from other corrective surgeries like Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) or Radial keratomy. The procedure lasts around 20 minutes, the patient remains mobile and the recovery is generally quick. The patient is given antibiotics and anti-inflammatory eye drops and is asked to sleep for longer hours, avoid sunlight and bright light.

With the best eye care surgeons, MaxHealthcare boasts of the most sophisticated techniques to serve you in the best possible way. You would definitely want to make the best choice when it comes to eye care, isn’t it?