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Cuba generalizes
hip replacement implant
• The RALCA model, designed by
Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras, director of the Frank
País International Orthopedic Science Complex, and
manufactured by the French firm PROSTEEL is now
fully in use
BY LILLIAM RIERA — Granma International staff writer
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PHOTOS: ALDO MEDERO
“A
year and a half ago, I was in a wheel chair. Now, a
week after my surgery, I can stand up and walk,”
says Dolores Marcheco, who cannot contain her
excitement. She received a hip replacement at the
Frank País International Orthopedic Science Complex
in Havana as part of a program for this technique
that has been developed in Cuba over the last seven
years.
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The institution directed by Dr.
Alvarez Cambras was the first in
Latin America to perform hip replacement surgery in 1969.
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And
to demonstrate that she is not exaggerating, the
77-year-old woman got up from her bed, with help
from her son, Armando Hernández, and took a few
steps around the hospital ward using a walker, so
that these two reporters from Granma
International could see that she felt “perfectly
well,” as she affirms.
AN
OPERATION THAT COSTS FROM $25,000 TO $40,000
ELSEWHERE
Dolores will soon be discharged from the hospital
and return to her home in Holguín province in
eastern Cuba. The physician who operated on her, Dr.
Aurelio Rodríguez Rodríguez, deputy director of
surgery at the hospital, affirms that her evolution
has been “excellent” in spite of the complexity of
the procedure, which is free in Cuba, but costs from
$25,000 to $40,000 elsewhere.
In a
conversation with Granma International the
center’s director, Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras,
emphasizes that the prestigious institution was the
first in Latin America to perform a hip replacement
operation, in 1969. The prosthesis currently costs
from $1,800 to $3,000.
In
Cuba, the RALCA model is used, designed by Dr.
Alvarez Cambras and manufactured by the French
company PROSTEEL. This model now exists in two
versions and continues to be improved.
The
prostheses are made of metal and polyethylene
covered with hydroxyapatite — the main mineral
component of bone —, obtained for this use from
coral and also synthetically in the laboratory. It
is produced at the National Scientific Research
Center, part of the west Havana scientific complex.
In
the case of RALCA 2, there are three types: the
non-hardened hip prosthesis, used for young people
with strong bones; the hardened one, which is used
for older people with osteoporosis or bone
deficiency; and the “spare” one, which is used for
patients whose bodies did not assimilate one of the
others.
FROM
2007, ANNUAL HIP REPLACEMENTS WILL TOTAL ALMOST
1,500
Alvarez Cambras, who is also a professor, explains
that from 2007, annual hip replacements in the
country will number about 560 non-hardened, 850
hardened, and approximately 40 “spares,” for a total
of almost 1,500 of these operations.
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Dolores, proud of her first steps
after
18 months of being unable to walk.
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He
explained that currently, operations for implants
with the hardened prostheses are taking place in all
of Cuba’s provincial hospitals, as well as the
Hermanos Ameijeiras, Cira García and CIMEQ in
Havana. Surgery using the non-hardened models has
spread to Santiago de Cuba and Holguín, in the east,
and Villa Clara and Cienfuegos, in central Cuba, and
will begin being used in the remaining provinces
next year.
The
renowned specialist noted that the increase in life
expectancy in Cuba has increased the probability of
the need for hip replacements in older adults.
When
asked about knee replacements in the country, he
said that the first was performed in 1972, in the
hospital he directs, and continued on a sporadic
basis until five years ago, when a new model was
introduced (KALISTE), manufactured by the French
company IMPLANT INDUSTRIE, and which Cuba purchases
for about $1,300.
Alvarez Cambras noted that to date this year, it has
been used in Santiago de Cuba, Camagüey, Cienfuegos
and Villa Clara. In 2007, it will be used
nationwide.
The
Frank País International Orthopedic Science Complex,
just 12 kilometers from downtown Havana, is
recognized throughout the world for its work in
orthopedic surgery, traumatology and rehabilitation. |
