World TB Day: Bhubaneswar’s KIMS Offers Advanced Treatment

Bhubaneswar: KIMS Bhubaneswar has stepped up efforts to treat spinal tuberculosis (TB) with advanced care so that the disease can be eradicated by 2025.

“We at KIMS Super Speciality Hospital are dealing with all types of spine surgery cases like spinal degenerative, deformities, tumours and spinal infections. Any patient coming with spinal disorders is welcome as we are a leading hospital in the entire state,” said Senior Consultant and Orthopaedic and Spine Surgeon Dr Jitendra Kumar Rout on the occasion of World TB Day, which will be observed on March 24.

Dr Rout, who is also secretary of Spine Society of Odisha, has performed numerous spine surgeries at KIMS Super Specialty Hospital, and is trained in advanced spine surgery from several reputed centres of India and abroad.

Spinal TB constitutes a significant portion of overall TB cases in India.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), over 2.2 lakh people in India died of the disease in 2020.

An airborne disease, the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (a bacteria) affects almost all organs in the human body and targets immune-compromised and malnourished individuals. The National Tuberculosis Eradication Programme (NTEP) has set a target to eliminate the disease by 2025.

Dr Rout, a fellow in spine surgery from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital New Delhi, reminded about the vision of KIIT-KISS Founder Dr Achyuta Samanta, saying KIMS Super Speciality unit has made it possible to treat many rare and unique procedures in spine in Odisha.

He stressed on Spine TB awareness for everyone in the society.

Spinal TB, also known as Pott’s Disease, affects the bones and can cause neurological deficits, nerve root pain and paralysis. It is diagnosed with skin or blood tests, tissue culture and imaging.

Symptoms of spinal TB include fever, stiffness, back pain and muscle spasms.

The treatment includes anti-TB therapy (ATT) medication and sometimes surgery to treat spine damage. However, advancement in this field has helped patients immensely.

KIMS Super Speciality Hospital has all state-of-art instruments to deal with complex spinal TB cases.

“Recently, the development of multidrug-resistant TB, frequency of infection in immune-deficient individuals, more accurate imaging modalities, and advances in spinal reconstruction techniques have all changed the management of Pott’s Disease,” said Dr Rout, who is trained from Malaya University, Malaysia and is an Executive Committee member of Association of Spine Surgeons of India.