New Delhi, October 14, 2026: Surgeons at Aakash Healthcare Super Speciality Hospital in Delhi have reported five years of success using mothers’ fibula bone grafts to reconstruct lower limbs in children with bone cancer and chronic infection, a technique previously documented only for upper limbs.
The surgical team, led by Dr. Aashish Chaudhry, Director & Head of Orthopaedics & Robotic Joint Replacement, Dr. Arun Kumar Giri, Director of Surgical Oncology, and Dr. Abhishek Kumar Sambharia, Consultant Orthopaedics, adapted the maternal fibula grafting approach after treating a 16-year-old girl in 2021 whose right femur was destroyed by chronic osteomyelitis. Her thigh bone was rebuilt with her mother’s fibula, and five years later, the graft continues to grow well.
Cases treated since 2021
Following the initial case, the team performed similar surgeries on a 14-year-old girl with chronic femur infection and a malunited pathological fracture in 2022. Four additional children from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have since undergone the procedure, three of whom were treated for cancer.
Among these, a five-year-old boy from Uzbekistan had a malignant tumour removed from his right femur on September 10, 2026, with a segment of his mother’s fibula used for reconstruction. Five days later, an eleven-year-old Uzbek boy with chondroblastic osteosarcoma of the right distal femur underwent tumour excision and reconstruction using his mother’s fibula and a custom-made plate. Both children had previously been advised above-knee amputation in their home countries before coming to Delhi for surgery.
International patients and outcomes
In September 2026, a three-year-old boy from Tajikistan, following five cycles of chemotherapy for Ewing’s sarcoma, had his right humerus tumour removed and the bone rebuilt with his mother’s fibula. Another case involved an approximately eleven-year-old Uzbek girl with congenital pseudoarthrosis of the left tibia; after clearing infected bone and old implants in April, her mother’s fibula was grafted in May, along with ankle fusion and a customised plate.
Surgeons highlight significance of maternal grafts
Dr. Aashish Chaudhry said the decision to use maternal fibula grafts in lower limbs was made after finding that the technique had only been reported for arms. “We asked ourselves whether it could work in the leg and decided the child deserved the chance, otherwise, these children would have been doomed to amputation,” he said. “Five years later, her bone is growing, and she is walking and living her life. That is the best proof we could ask for.”
He added that the approach provides a matched, readily available graft for children whose own bone has been lost to disease, and that both mother and child are closely monitored during recovery. “Mothers have given these children life once. Here, they helped them walk again,” Dr. Chaudhry said.
About Aakash Healthcare
Aakash Healthcare is a 300-bed super-speciality hospital in Dwarka, New Delhi, established in August 2017. The hospital is expanding with new centres planned in Dwarka Sector 12 and Gurugram.
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