The Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry conducted the CEO Forum’s 12th Breakfast Meeting on Friday, 6th of December 2019 at the Taj Gateway Hotel, Ernakulam.
Mr. V Venugopal, President of the Chamber, delivered the Welcome Address and introduced the Speaker for the meeting.
Dr. Jacob Varughese, Head of Orthopaedic Department, VPS Lakeshore spoke on the importance of "Joint Health & Safety: Maintenance and Preservation."
Dr. Varughese said that Joint preservation is an emerging field in orthopaedics that evolved primarily in response to the limitations in joint replacement technology and Orthopaedic surgeons have turned to joint preservation as a way to prevent the degenerative conditions affecting the joints, particularly in young patients.
Joint preservation refers to the use of surgical or nonsurgical means to preserve a deteriorating joint in order to delay or avoid joint replacement surgery. Every doctor customizes his joint preservation strategy based on the patient’s condition and taking into account factors such as age, expectations, level of joint dysfunction, activity level etc. He explained the various non-surgical joint preservations techniques like joint injections, Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy, and Stem Cell therapy as well as surgical techniques like Osteotomy and Cartilage restoration procedures in detail.
Dr. Varughese said that joint replacement surgery is generally performed for late stage degenerative arthritis (osteoarthritis), after all other options have failed as most of the causes for hip pain, can be treated with far less invasive options. The session also covered the differences between joint replacement and joint preservation in detail.
Dr. Varughese said that India has the second-largest number of accredited medical facilities in the world and if the resources are exploited in the right manner India could hit 7-8 billion dollars in medical tourism revenues by 2020. The maximum opportunity for the Indian healthcare sector lies in Africa, GCC, and the CIS regions he said.
Mr. Bibu Punnooran, Executive Committee Member of the Chamber presented a Memento to Dr. Varughese.
Mr. K Harikumar, Vice President of the Chamber proposed the Vote of Thanks.
