Relief in sight for arthritis patients

Joint replacement surgery may be a thing of the past as the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) and the Centre for Advanced Research and Development, Bangalore, have successfully treated about 300 arthritis patients with the help of device known as Cytotron which is based on tissue engineering.

Tissue engineering regenerates and repairs joint cartilage using radio frequency beams from 288 guns focused precisely on the area requiring regeneration.

Till date only five Cytotron machines have been installed in whole of the country, three in Bangalore, one in Jamnagar and now one in Ludhiana.

Cytotron uses Rotational Field Quantum Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (RFQMR) non-invasively to regenerate and repair dying tissues and organs in the human body.

Commenting on this, R V Kumar, the inventor of Cytotron said that all the patients had severe pain of long duration; great limitation of movements and all conventional treatment methods had proved unsuccessful leaving knee replacement surgery as the only other alternative available.

"After treatment with Cytotron, they are now without pain and can walk normally 1 to 5 km without any discomfort and climb stairs without any help. Most patients have a remarkable range of motion and can even sit cross-legged and squat on floor, which they could not do earlier. The treatment has been certified safe as normal and healthy cells are not affected in any way," he said.

When asked as why did they choose Ludhiana and not New Delhi or Mumbai for installing Cytotron, Kumar said that most of the Arthritis patients who come for treatment at our Bangalore centre or Jamnagar centre a re from Punjab. "This may be because of the high fat intake of Punjabis and that is why they suffer from this disease as well as from obesity," he said.

If a patient suffering from Arthritis has to go to Bangalore for treatment, he has to be airlifted and moreover the cost of staying in Bangalore is far more than that of in Punjab. So we decided to install this machine here.''

The price of this treatment is not fixed yet as its still in phase 2 of its trial. ``We are still in the second phase of our trial and most probably, price will be fixed in December this year when its manufacturing starts,'' said Dr Kumar.

``A knee surgery costs around 1.5 lakh to 1.8 lakh rupees and the patient requires three weeks of recovery time and then six months of rehabilitation. But with Cytotron, all it takes the patient to recover and rehabilitate is 21 days. All he has to pay is the administrative charges of the hospital, which are close to Rs 30,000. Even when the price of this treatment will be fixed, the cost will be 50 percent less than that of the knee surgery.''

Dr S S Sibia of Sibia Medical Centre, where Cytotron has been installed said that initially tissue regeneration and repair would be available only for knee joint.

``Latter extended range of Tissue Engineering facilities would be provided for other degenerative diseases. In case of arthritis, it regenerates and repairs the worn out cartilage and most patients show remarkable improvement and stop taking painkiller medicines within a week of starting the treatment, thus preventing long term damage to the liver and kidneys.''