Gurgaon, June 25 (IANS): A 45-year-old Iraqi man who suffered a gunshot wound to his knee underwent surgery to replace the damaged knee and recreate the knee joint by undoing the complete bony fusion that had rendered him disabled, said a doctor.

He was left disabled with stiffness in his knee-bent position and zero movement in the lower limb, causing him to live an extremely painful and restricted life.

After every treatment failed, Hameed travelled from Iraq to India for medical assistance and after consulting several doctors in India, he contacted Dr Vivek Logani, Chief of Joint Replacement Surgery at Paras Hospitals.

Hameed finally found succour at Paras Hospitals in Gurgaon where he underwent a complex surgical procedure to replace his damaged knee.

After examination, the doctors found that the knee joint of the patient had been damaged and had caused the thigh bone, the leg bone and the patella to completely fuse into each other leaving the flexible joint as a mass of bone incapable of motion.

"We examined the patient and found that there was complete fusion in the three bones. There was extensive soft tissue scarring around the knee owing to the gunshot and previous surgery," said Dr Vivek Logani.

"We undertook a total knee replacement surgery on the patient. It was a rare case of a knee that had gone stiff due to fusion of the bones with muscles and ligaments. We planned a modified skin incision to avoid the scarred area."