Regain mobility, regain hope

Henry Fu Chun-him
Resident Specialist (Orthopaedics & Traumatology)
Queen Mary Hospital / Duchess of Kent Children’s Hospital

The Duchess of Kent Children’s Hospital Joint Replacement Centre was established since 2016 with an output of 350 surgeries annually, allowing numerous arthritic patients to walk again. Dr Henry Fu and his multidisciplinary team formulated a fast track arthroplasty clinical pathway incorporating preoperative education, perioperative multimodal analgesic regime and patient blood management. Patients can typically walk on the day of surgery and recover faster. There is a significant reduction of the average length of stay from conventionally over two weeks to less than four days. Shorter hospital stay also results in lower morbidity.

Apart from providing total knee joint replacement service, Dr Fu advocates partial knee replacement for suitable patients because it allows faster recovery and achieves better post-operation function. “I had a patient who suffered from debilitating knee arthritis. Every step was a great pain for her that she had to rely on painkillers. Being a social dance fanatic, she wished to continue her dancing pursuit after the surgery. Total knee joint replacement although being an excellent surgery, might not provide her with the high functional demand she was after, thus I advised her to have partial knee replacement. As a result, she made a full recovery in six weeks, which was only half the usual recovery time for total knee replacement. The patient took part in a dancing contest three months after the operation and even won the championship!” Dr Fu stresses, “We treat patients, not X-rays. It is important for us to adopt a patient-centered approach by taking an individual’s functional demands into consideration.”

Keen on learning cutting edge technology in surgery, Dr Fu undertook three-month training at three world-renowned orthopaedics hospitals in the USA. Upon his return, he introduced robotic arm assisted technology for joint replacement in Queen Mary Hospital this January, which is the first public hospital utilising this equipment. This technology promises greater surgical precision and safety, making surgery more consistent and reducing the risk of future revision surgery.