Dr. Karkare was featured two weeks in a row on New Jersey’s News 12 Segment, 12 to Your Health.
The host of the segment is Dr. Derrick Desilva, a prominent New York doctor.
Here’s the first segment, that aired Saturday September 8th 2018…
Here’s the transcription:
Dr. Desilva: Welcome to 12 To Your Health. I’m Dr. Derrick Desilva.
Dr. Desilva: Are you considering knee or hip replacement? Well there are possibly other options when it comes to protecting your joints, but surgery may be your only solution. And here with what you need to know is orthopedic surgeon and joint specialist, Dr. Dr. Karkare.
Dr. Desilva: Welcome to the program. Thank you for joining us.
Dr. Karkare: Good to be here.
Dr. Desilva: What happens to our joints as we age?
Dr. Karkare: So, as we age, hair becomes gray, we develop cataracts, and joints are more predisposed to become arthritic.
Dr. Desilva: So they wear out? I mean kind of a car wearing out the joint? Same thing.
Dr. Karkare: Very similar. What happens is that the cartilage wears off, and then bone starts rubbing on bone and that’s what we call arthritis.
Dr. Desilva: What are some of the things we can do? What are the best ways to protect our joints?
Dr. Karkare: The reason for developing arthritis is genetic. And clearly there’s nothing you can do as far as your genetics goes. However, there are many things that patients can do to prevent deterioration of their joints.
Most importantly, watch your weight. More weight you have, more weight goes through your hips and through your knees, and the possibility of developing arthritis is increased.
Dr. Karkare: I strongly suggest my patients to listen to their body. If they have pain, stop what you are doing. Nip it in the bud. So if there’s any activity that causes pain, you’ve got to stop doing that.
Rest, take over-the-counter medications if you can tolerate them, and if you continue to have pain get a consultation to see what’s going on.
Dr. Desilva: When should you consider surgery? Very quickly, we’re running out of time.
Dr. Karkare: I keep it very easy. I follow the three-strike rule. The first and the most important strike is pain interfering with activities of daily living. That is the first and the most important strike.
Dr. Karkare: Second strike is, on examination, I know that the pain is coming from that particular joint.
Dr. Karkare: And the third strike is that the x-rays show arthritis. Only if these three strikes come together, the patient is a candidate to talk about joint replacement surgery.
Dr. Desilva: So I think the biggest issue here is quality of life.
Dr. Karkare: Absolutely.
Dr. Desilva: When it starts to affect your quality of life, and when it starts to affect all that, that’s when you need to do it.
Dr. Desilva: Great job, thank you very much for joining us.
Dr. Karkare: Thank you.
Dr. Desilva: Thank you for the information.
Dr. Desilva: Once again, folks, and here’s what we’re working on for next week. Remember, you can catch 12 To Your Health every Saturday and Sunday during our morning and afternoon newscasts.
Dr. Desilva: Once again, if you have any health questions, by the way, you’d like to ask, email them to me at 12toyourhealth@news12.com or head over to my Facebook page and you can post your question there.
Dr. Desilva: Thank you so much for joining us here today. Here’s a look at this week’s community health calendar.
Here’s the second segment, that aired Saturday September 15th 2018…
Here’s the transcription:
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: Welcome to 12 To Your Health, I’m Dr. Derrick DeSilva. Orthopedic surgeon and joint replacement specialist Dr. Nakul Karkare is here again this week to talk about how new technology is changing the game of joint replacement surgery. He’s joined by his patient, Anastasia Halpin. Welcome to the program; thanks for joining us!
Dr. Karkare: Good to be here.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: So, what are you holding in your hand there? This looks really awesome.
Dr. Karkare: So today we have some fascinating technologies that have really revolutionized the way we do joint replacement surgery. This is a model of a customized knee replacement. So, what we do is, we remove the diseased part of the bone, and then cap it with an artificial part. And then we put the knee back together.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: Wow. So this is all done on a computer?
Dr. Karkare: Absolutely. So the patient gets a CT scan of the knee done. That CT scan gets transferred onto a computer, and then the computer builds a 3D model of the knee joint. This knee is customized for the patient, and it is put in the patient using customized instruments.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: Now this is called 3D printing, or 3D imprinting? What is this called?
Dr. Karkare: It’s called 3D technology for knee replacement surgery.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: That is unbelievable how things have changed. Anastasia, you had this done.
Anastasia Halpi: I did.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: You look very young. I mean, typically we see knee replacements, Doctor, in older people. Why did you have to have a knee replacement at such a young age?
Anastasia Halpi: I was in an accident years ago, and after about twelve procedures, I was still in chronic pain-
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: Twelve procedures?
Anastasia Halpi: Twelve. It was dramatically affecting my life.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: So, how did this change things?
Anastasia Halpi: It changed everything.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: No more pain?
Anastasia Halpi: No more pain. I can run up stairs. I can lift things, I can bend, I can squat again. I can garden.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: What was the difference between what she had before and what you did for her?
Dr. Karkare: So before she had arthritic joint, and that arthritic joint was removed and replaced with the artificial joint.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: But it wasn’t customized for her? Is that the key here?
Dr. Karkare: It was customized for her. So traditionally, we used off the shelf implants. However, that did not match the kinematics of the natural knee, and therefore the patient satisfaction scores were not good.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: Understand.
Dr. Karkare: Today with the customized knee implants, we have much better satisfaction scores, because the anatomy matches that of the patient.
Dr. Derrick DeSilva: Thank you very much. Great information, good luck to you by the way. And folks, if you have any health questions you like to ask, email them to me at 12ToYourHealth@news12.com, or head over to my Facebook page and you can post your question there.
Once again, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. Here’s a look at this week’s community health calendar.
