Avoiding medicines in chronic cases dangerous, say doctors

A complex knee replacement surgery was performed by city-based doctors on a 63-year-old woman who was suffering from Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for the last 15 years. The doctors said she had stopped taking medicines and started following few home-made remedies which were shown on television (TV) that led to the deterioration of her health.

The doctors said previously she had undergone a surgery on her right hand and left hand as she was suffering from RA.

“She was highly influenced by the advertisement shown on TV on RA treatment after which she had stopped taking medicines prescribed by her doctor. She began to rely on a herbal medicine which worsened her condition due to which she was completely bed-ridden which affected both the joints of her knees,” added a senior doctor.

The relatives of the patients said that she was struggling a lot because the RA affected her knee joints causing inflammation.

“For the past two years she was not able to move or straighten her knee and we admitted her for knee replacement surgery,” said Avinash Manjrekar.

A senior doctor said that her ignorance of her condition led to inflammation in her knees.

“There is no cure for RA, but she stopped consuming medicines and blindly followed home-made remedies without consulting any doctor. Patients need to be careful as such experiments prove to be detrimental in such RA conditions,” added Dr Ashish Arbat, a surgeon.

Arbat further stated that knee replacement was the only solution in order for her to walk and bend her knees. “We had performed total knee replacement surgery (TKR) with invasive integrated surgical technique. Every month we get more than ten patients who are influenced by such TV advertisement,” added Dr. Arbat.