“Golden hand” in arthroscopic knee surgery

11/03/2021 08:57

(Chinhphu.vn) – talking about the knee arthroscopic in Vietnam, no one in the medicine does not know Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh, Vice Director of the Institute of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Head of the Upper Extremities Surgery and Sport medicine, Viet Duc University Hospital, who has set a “record” with more than 10,000 knee arthroscopic surgeries out of a total of more than 30,000 surgeries that he has successfully performed in his 20 years of experience.

 

20 years of experience with more than 30.000 successful surgeries

 

Well-trained in France, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh has been the pioneer in bringing the knee arthroscopic techniques to Vietnam since the 2000s and he is also the first doctor of Viet Duc University Hospital who performs knee arthroscopic surgery, knee and hip replacement.

 

When performing the first knee arthroscopic surgery at Viet Duc University Hospital, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh shared, he faced many challenges such as the hospital did not have the arthroscopic equipment and colleagues well trained in this field. However, with the support of hospital leaders, along with the diligence, perseverance, carefulness and meticulousness of a resident doctor specializing in surgery, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh has profited maximum the donation for this brand new technology in Vietnam, though not synchronized.

 

“When performing surgery, even without a self-balancing sensor, I had to manually pump water into the knee joint during the operation ”, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh shared.

 

Overcoming many difficulties and challenges, the resident doctor quickly asserted his skills every day with the first successful surgeries, taking full of confidence from the hospital’s leaders. After that, the hospital gradually invested in modern technical equipment and since 2010, this technique performs routinely at Viet Duc University Hospital…

 

“Widespread fame, good reputation”, the number of patients from other localities coming to the hospital is increasing. Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh with his colleagues directly perform nearly 2.000 surgeries per year. So far, until now, the “golden hand” of this talented doctor has successfully performed more than 30.000 surgeries related to the knee and hip joints… including up to 10.000 cases of arthroscopic of knee joints with almost no symptoms.

 

Most recently, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh directly operated for national athlete Pham Thi Tuoi who won the SEA GAMES 30 gold medal, due to a rupture of posterior ligament of knee. The surgery was successful beyond expectation, the female player now does not need to worry about her career being affected by injury, but only waiting for the time to fully recover to continue reaping more success.

 

Many patients fell, had accidents, fractured hip joints, knee joints, had to be bedridden, endured excruciating pain, and then a passionate dance artist suffered from knee pain for many years, unable to walk. … They have “removed” the illness and pain to return to normal life thanks to the arthroscopic surgery

 

 

From passion to method

 

Taking over the medicine from both parents, at that time, the young man specializing in Chemistry of Hanoi – Amsterdam high school chose the surgery for having further career.

 

“More than 25 years ago, only the cardiovascular and gastrointestinal surgery… were “hot” fields. Meanwhile, no students want to follow because this field at that time did not develop in terms of both technology and equipment as well as human resource but only simple techniques such as surgery for fracture of femur, leg, forearm… or cast in plaster and then let the patients discharge”, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh shared.

 

But with carefree thoughts and many patient images of a child following his parents to work in the hospital from his toddler days, to the passion when deciding to choose his own path, that young man saw many interesting things in the orthopaedic trauma that was considered the “chisel” technique, not the quintessence, a remarkable effect after surgery, the patients recover quickly with less complications…

 

When being a resident doctor at Viet Duc University Hospital, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh passed rigorous exams to become 1 of 5 people from the North and North Central selected to study in France. In that country, he has learned and trained methodically for many years. He chose knee arthroscopic to do his master degree in French and became the first doctor in Vietnam to study in this field..

 

Presently, knee arthroscopic surgery technique of Viet Duc University Hospital has been transferred to many provincial hospitals such as Ha Giang, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh …

 

Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh himself is also one of the first doctors of Viet Duc University Hospital to directly work for a whole month in Ha Giang, Yen Bai, to train and transfer knee arthroscopic techniques – something was still very new to these localities at that time.

 

“Going far from home for a long time, tired and stressed, and also miss my family. But I understand very well that my strenuous is a “trade-off”, helping many people not have to go far for treatment as before”, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh said. Currently, provincial hospitals are able to perform this technique, people in other localities do not need to go to Hanoi for treatment anymore, increasing opportunities to improve their quality of life and save a lot of travel and accommodation costs.

 

In order not to fall behind, every year, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh regularly travel to the US, France, Singapore, Thailand … to learn and update new techniques. With efforts over the past 20 years, Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Manh Khanh has received many noble awards such as: The title of Associate Professor at the age of 41; many certificates of merit from the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Health, Emulation Soldier title for many years… He was also awarded the title of Excellent Physician by the President of Vietnam on the occasion of the 66^th anniversary of Vietnam Physician’s Day, February 27.