Doctors perform rare operation on aspiring footballer

Doctors at a city hospital have successfully performed a rare procedure on a 19-year-old aspiring footballer to treat a posterior ankle injury through ankle arthroscopic surgery.

The patient Shubham’s troubles began when he started suffering pain in the posterior of his ankle, a pain aggravated by running and kicking the football.

At Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), a team of orthopaedic and sports medicine specialists examined him and he was finally diagnosed with posterior ankle impingement syndrome.

Explaining this condition, consultant sports medicine, ISIC, Dr Jayant Kumar, said this is a condition of bone overgrowth on the back of the ankle and affects certain movements, like those involving downward movement of the ankle. “This is witnessed in footballers when they consistently kick the football or in en pointe position in ballet dancers. It hurts a lot and can affect the athlete’s performance,” he added. A foot and ankle specialist at ISIC, Dr Maninder Shah Singh, said the healing regimen began with a trial of conservative treatment for three months, which included use of physiotherapy modalities, oral anti-inflammatory medication and exercises. The patient, however, was not getting satisfactory results with the conservative trial treatment as the pain would recur while sprinting and kicking footballs.

This surgery is done using two skin cuts of less than one cm each at the back of the ankle. After surgery Shubham started walking on the second day itself and was discharged immediately. Rehabilitation be-gan with the help of the efficient sports physiotherapists of the sports rehab team of ISIC Arthroscopy and Sports Injury Department.