Doc uses ancient technique to rebuild Afghan’s nose

New Delhi: Taking a leaf out of history, a city based plastic surgeon reconstructed the nose of a 28-year-old gunshot victim from Afghanistan using techniques described in the Sushruta Samhita, an ancient Sanskrit text on medicine and surgery.

Shot at the age of 24, though Shamsa (name changed) was fortunate to have survived the attack, she lost most part of her nose, her ability to breath and smell, and her self confidence along with her ability to interact normally with people.

After much thought, the family travelled all the way to India. Her life is eventually back on track after the successful nose reconstruction surgery in the national capital here.

Commenting on his unique surgical approach, the medical director of KAS Medical Centre and MedSpa, Dr Ajaya Kashyap, said: “We often fail to take pride in the fact that some most advanced and modern surgical procedures, like plastic surgery, have their roots in India.

“Like Sushruta’s techniques, which are so precise and scientifically accurate that they could be used even today for nose and ear reconstructions, all we have to do is to modify them to sync with latest treatment modalities. In this particular case, I took skin from Shamsa’s cheeks for the surgery and nose reconstruction following the techniques described by Sushruta.”

Explaining about the complications and challenges he faced in the surgery, Dr Kashyap said: “When it comes to facial reconstruction surgeries, along with addressing associated medical issues we also need to take care of its cosmetic aspects. As in this case, the challenge was to reconstruct a major part of the nose without creating further scars. To avoid this, we had to take tissues from inside of the cheeks to reconstruct flaps for nasal septum and nasal passage, which is a tedious procedure. But all the effort was worth taking as we managed to give the patient the exact results she wanted.”