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Pakistani doctor claims bone graft substitute

* Says his treatment cheaper and simpler

By Waqar Gillani

LAHORE: A Pakistani orthopaedic surgeon, Professor Muhammad Tariq Sohail of Services Hospital and Postgraduate Medical Institute, has discovered a calcium-based compound that can be used as a cheaper alternative to bone grafting.

Prof Sohail told reporters on Wednesday that the compound had been tested successfully on 130 patients in a six-month study. “The success and recovery ratio of the patients is 85 to 90 percent,” he said.

He said the compound consists of calcium phosphate, calcium sulphate and collagen. “These are small tablets, put in the fracture, infection or bone gaps. The human body absorbs the tablets gradually and, within two months, a new bone starts to appear,” he said. Prof Sohail said his treatment was cheaper and simpler than bone grafting, which required two operations, one to get bone from a different part of the patient’s body or from a donor, and the other to graft the new bone onto the target site.

The new procedure, he said, was cheaper, decreased donor site morbidity, infection, blood loss, time the patient has to be under anaesthesia, post-operative instability, heterotopic bone formation and cosmetic defects.

Prof Sohail said he had completed the study alone and treated all previous patients free. “I got the idea at a conference in Japan around three years ago,” he said. He said he hadn’t decided whether he would sell the compound. He told Daily Times he might present the formula to the government so it could help the most people.

Prof Sohail has trained in the United Kingdom and was made a professor in 1996. He did his MBBS from King Edward Medical College in 1975 and his Masters of Surgery in Britain in 1984. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and Glasgow
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_22-1-2004_pg7_11