Nagpur's engineering students develop low cost nose implants

 Dr P M Padole handing over the nose implants to Dr S N Luley. Dr Avinash Deshmukh, Dr Dilip Peshwe, Shirish Deshpande, Secretary of BMEF, Dr Rashmi Uddenwadikar and others look on.

By Vikas Vaidya

Every individual has a fundamental right to look good but for the unfortunate victims of accidents and those with deformities by birth, plastic surgery is often the only but a costly resort. In many cases if one suffer from deformity in nose, the nose implants are fitted which is a costly affair.  The students of mechanical engineering of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) under the aegis of Bio-Medical Engineering Forum (BMEF), have designed and developed nose implant for augmentation Rhinoplasty in collaboration with Dr. S. N. Lulay Senior ENT surgeon of Nagpur. Nikhil Adhe, Sourabh Shende and Adwait Inamdar under guidance of Dr. Rashmi Uddanwadiker have indigenously fabricated low cost implant which suits Indian demography.
Nikhil, Adwait and Sourabh were successful in procuring raw material from US based supplier in association with Métier Lifestyle, New Delhi, fabricated the die as per the shape of the implant in collaboration with Dulocos Moulds and Conveyers Pvt Ltd. Industrial Partner, performed number of steps and after repeated trials  got a defect free sample. After lot of hard work, they got the sample approved from doctors. The sample was then tested for biocompatibility and contamination in NABL accredited laboratory Anacon Labs Pvt. Ltd.
The official handover ceremony of the final product took place at VNIT. A multitude of doctors, ENT Surgeons and members of Biomedical engineering forum graced the occasion. Director, Dr. Narendra Chaudhary, Patron of Biomedical Engineering Forum congratulated the entire team for successful completion of the project.
Dr. S. N. Lulay highlighted the need of such research for the betterment of society. Earlier Dr. P. M. Padole, President of BMEF gave a brief report about the activities of the forum like the research leading to deployment of stent in coronary artery and fatigue testing of hip implant developed by DRDO, estimation of muscle characteristics, development of prosthetic hand etc. Dr. Rashmi Uddanwadiker, Secretary, BMEF who has supervised the research project said about the nose implants which are meant for correction of saddle nose. Buoyed by the success of the project, she hoped for many such successful collaborations in the future which would benefit the society at large. It’s a matter of pride for BMEF and VNIT researchers to hand over the final product to doctors and surgeons.
The function was attended by leading doctors and eminent personalities like Dr. Avinash Deshmukh, Dr. Madan Kapre, Dr. Alankar Ramteke, Dr. Pallavi Lulay,  Dr. Ramesh Mundle,  Dr. Harshwardhan Arya, Dr. Satish Das, Dr Sunita Shrivastava,  Dr. Satyajeet Jagtap, Dr. Rajendra Deshmukh, Dr. Rajendra Saoji, Dr. Prashant Naik, Dr. S. G. Garway, Dr. Sudhanshu Kothe, Dr. Abhay Datarkar,  Dr. Vinay Mahore, Dr. Surendra Gawarle, Dr. Devendra Mahore, Dr. A M Pawde, Dr. V V Harkare, Dr. Ashwini Uddanwadiker, Dr. D.R. Peshwe, Dr.  S.R. Sathe etc.
The doctors from various specialties like cardiology, plastics, orthodontist , ENT and orthopeadics were extremely delighted to see the capabilities of BMEF and expressed optimism that under future collaborations various instruments and implants can be manufactured indigenously and at a low cost.
The implants presently are hand carved by doctors from silicone block themselves to get desired shape. Shape of the implant depends on doctor’s skill. They also have poor surface finish & aesthetics. Few surgeons prefer to use readymade imported implants. However, readymade implants having a standard shape do not suit Indian face morphology. Ready-made imported implants being costly also increase overall cost of surgery.
Researchers at VNIT have designed implant and made a solid model according to Indian face morphology requirement.  They have set up manufacturing process to make implants. The main aim of the research is to provide implant at very low price to make the surgery accessible to common man.