Department of Orthopaedics at Doctors Hospital Orthopaedics is a field dealing with diagnosis and treatment of ailments related to bones, joints, spine and allied structures. With modernization of the world, increased traveling, availability of high-speed vehicles and growing stresses of the modern times, there has been a significant increase in the orthopaedic and spine related problems. To cope with the changing' situation there have been lot of advancements in all the fields of medicine specially surgery. Particularly there have been great advances in the field of orthopaedics making diagnosis of orthopaedic related problems and their treatment easily possible and more successful. The common orthopaedic problems are degeneration (wear and tear) of the joints specially knees and hips. The vertebral column is also affected by the process of degeneration whether it is the vertebrae of neck or back. The degeneration of joints leads to pain, stiffness, disability and difficulty in walking or sitting. The degeneration of vertebral column can lead to neck and back pain, which can be associated with leg or arm pain. Apart from degeneration, other kinds of] arthritis can bring a lot of inconvenience to the patient. Disk herniation (slip disk) is a common cause of low back pain and leg pain, which can be pretty disabling. Victims of high-speed automobile accidents make another big chunk of orthopaedic related problems. Sportsmen sustain various kinds of injuries to their knees, spines, bones and soft tissues of their body. Orthopaedic and associated services are related to investigation, diagnosis and timely treatment of the above-mentioned problems. Lately there has been a lot of improvement in methods to investigate and treat patients. Orthopaedic surgery is no way behind any other discipline of medicine, and has made tremendous advancement in the recent years. Keeping pace with rest of the world, orthopedics, trauma and spinal surgery at Doctors Hospital have developed with such a speed that in a very short period of time people have recognized it as a center of excellence for orthopadic surgery. This recognition has come from the academic circles and patients alike both from within and outside the country. Orthopaedic surgery department at Doctors Hospital is staffed by consultants, who are highly qualified from the leading university hospitals of UK and USA. They have spent years abroad working at highest surgical posts, practicing high standard surgery and being involved in teaching programs. The department has qualified and very well trained doctors as surgical assistants who assist in the operation theaters and look after the patients before and after surgery. The nurses and operation theater assistants have been selected with great caution and care. They have been trained further over period of years to consolidate their training and experience so that best possible care is provided to our patients in operation theaters, which are the most important part of a hospital providing surgical facilities. As mentioned above operating theaters play a key role in providing a high standard surgical facility, we have put a lot of effort in establishing very high standard orthopaedic operation theater suites. These have been purpose built, keeping in mind the international standards of hygiene and workability. A huge investment has been made to equip these theaters with the most modern pieces of equipment including advanced and high-tech autoclaves, which are used to sterilize the instrumentation and other paraphernalia required for orthopaedic surgery. We have available in theaters, very expensive equipment like image intensifier screening machine, pneumatic drill & saw systems, orthopaedic tables, latest anesthetic machines and monitoring systems along with operating microscopes. We have available in our theaters multiple sets of high quality instrumentation for fixing fractures, doing joint replacement surgeries, arthroscopic surgeries, spinal surgeries and other orthopaedic procedures. We use the latest implants and prosthesis parallel with rest of the world, for all the fracture and joint replacement surgeries. We have created a system where our patient does not have to go searching for good quality prosthesis and implants. We rather have them available to our patients in operation theaters at market prices. This ensures quality and price control in addition to prevention of low-grade implant usage and unnecessary complications thereof. We take pride in the anesthetic team we have. Our anesthetic team is the most organized, competent and energetic one in the town, which is available for anesthetizing our patients and looking after them post operatively round the clock. If an emergency surgery has to be performed in middle of the night we do not have to wait for the anesthetist to arrive from somewhere else-they are rather available in the hospital premises 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This definitively enables us to deliver a prompt and safe surgical treatment to our patients. Amongst our anesthetic team we have consultants who are experts in the pain management. They have devised such methods of pain control that our patients recovering from major surgeries have a little or no feeling of pain which makes their recovery pleasant and comfortable. This increases patient's confidence in the surgeon and the system. We have a formal postoperative recovery area, which is heavily staffed to look after our patients very carefully when they are recovering from their surgeries. This increases the safety level because patients are strictly monitored till they are transferred to their rooms or ward. As far as orthopaedic surgery itself is concerned major operations like Total Hip Replacement and Total Knee Replacement are being performed by orthopaedic surgeons here with great success and excellent results. In these operations the diseased joints are removed and replaced with new joints and the patients are mobile within a very limited period of time. The reasons for this high success and very low complication rate are highly skilled surgeons, well trained orthopaedic team, excellent anesthetic setup, purpose built & well equipped theaters and a highly reliable post-op service which comprises of well trained nurses and doctors. This facility can easily be compared with similar facilities in Europe, UK and USA. This is why we attract patients from whole of Punjab, other provinces of Pakistan and even from abroad. Other surgeries like Arthroscopic Surgery are being done regularly in which a joint mostly knee joint is operated through small puncture holes and recovery is very quick and most of the times the patient is able to go back to work within a few days. Knee cartilages and ligaments are repaired through puncture holes instead of opening the joint. Orthopedic surgeons working at Doctors Hospital have operated on famous squash, cricket and hockey players of Pakistan team getting them back to their competitive sports very quickly and successfully. A lot of other celebrities have been operated by our surgeons. Surgery of spine use to be taken as a very complicated and difficult surgery in the past, but this is being done at Doctors Hospital on routine basis. Newer and complex surgeries on spine are being done. It is now possible to have surgery for slipped disc (disc herniation) and go home in a couple of days. The recovery is fast and the patient can get back to work in a few days time. The results are now comparable to the results of most modern hospitals in the advance countries. People have traveled from other countries to have spinal surgery performed at Doctors Hospital. We provide safe and comfortable circumstances for high standard surgery at an affordable price. For the patients of lesser affordability we have a centrally air-conditioned general ward where charges are even lower but there is no compromise on the quality of surgery and aftercare. We always are cognizant that safe surgery is most essential. In addition to major surgeries mentioned above, all other kinds of orthopadic operations like correction of deformities, nerve tendon repairs, tendon transfers, limb lengthening and soft tissue procedures are regularly performed. We have day case service available where patients having minor to moderate degree of surgery are admitted in the morning and sent home in the evening making it convenient and cost effective for the patient. One most important aspect of orthopadic and trauma surgery is treatment of road traffic accidents. We take accident patients and their emergency treatment as our first priority. Our accidents and emergency department is ready and equipped to take such patients round the clock and our consultants are always available for emergency surgery wherever needed. We at Doctors Hospital usually have secondary and tertiary referrals, which means that we get patients only after they have been treated elsewhere and we get them for treatment of complications and re-do surgeries. Although we take this as a compliment but we would like to send a loud message to the patients and primary clinicians both that prompt, good and definitive primary treatment provided by an expert and experienced surgeon at or nearer the time of accident will provide best results. This will increase the success rate tremendously and will reduce the complication rate significantly, therefore saving the patient a lot of money, inconvenience and disability. This means that appropriate treatment of a fracture at a good center initially will get the patient back to work much earlier than having multiple surgeries here and there. At Doctors Hospital we are always ready and equipped to accept trauma patients and our surgeons are highly trained to handle major trauma patients with multiple fractures and other injuries. The presence of most well equipped intensive care unit and strong medical & cardiac backup makes our life easy while looking after major trauma patients recovering from serious condition. We feel proud of being a part of the most dependable and easily accessible orthopaedic and trauma setup in the town. DR. GHAZANFAR ALI SHAH M.B.B.S., F.R.C.S. (England) F.A.C.S., F.I.C.S., F.A.A.O.S. Diplomate American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery Chief Executive & Chief of Orthopaedic Doctors Hospital & Medical Centre DR. GHULAM ABBAS M.B.B.S, F.R.C.S (UK), M.I.I.T.S (USA) Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Doctors Hospital & Medical Centre Formerly Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon R.D.G.H., Sheffield, UK Back