New hospital puts Chennai on the world map for diabetic care

CHENNAI: Dr Rajesh Kesavan, founder-director of the Dr. RK Diabetic Foot and Podiatry Institute & Rakesh Jhunjhunwala Amputation Prevention Center, Rare Family Foundation, Mrs Rekha Jhunjunwalla inaugurated a hi-tech 50-bed diabetic care hospital in Chennai on December 24.

Equipped with the latest equipment and technology, the hospital will take diabetic treatment and care to world class levels and put Chennai on the global map for diabetic care.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Rekha Jhunjhunwala, the wife of the late investor and stock market wizard Rakesh Jhunjunwala, said that the hospital “fulfils a long-held vision and dream of my husband, and he would have been delighted to see how technology has made such a radical change in diabetic care.”

The hospital is the first in India have Extremity MRI, which allows partial scanning as opposed to the whole body scans used in hospitals across the country. “This allows scanning of just the foot and leg instead of the entire body, allowing the patient to finish the scanning while reading a book or sipping a cup of coffee,” said Dr Kesavan. “It is also the first to use Cold Plasma Therapy, which which inactivates bacteria including multi-resistant pathogens, viruses, Fungi and spores, thereby speeding up the healing process,” he added.

The hospital also boasts of the largest Multi-place Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy units in the country, which administers 100 percent oxygen at up to 3 atmospheric pressures to a patient placed inside the chamber, increasing plasma and tissue oxygen more than 100 times, helping heal even the most stubborn wounds. For patients who are uncomfortable or unable to enter the Hyperbaric chamber, there is Topical Wound Oxygen Therapy (Two2), which uses an extremity chamber which allows oxygen to be applied topically through high pressure. This reduces hypoxia, fights infection, and promotes the growth of new blood vessels. It also has 3D Bio-printing, used to recreate the tissue damaged due to diabetic foot ulcer, and heal wounds within a defined timescale.

Other high end equipment inclues a Versajet Hydrodebridement System, which uses a high pressure jet of saline to cut through and selectively remove unhealthy tissues, and suck out all the debris simultaneously, promoting faster healing, and Gait Analysis Systems, which uses sensors and infrared beams to minutely record all aspects of the gait cycle of diabetic patients, allowing for better treatment.