Dr Naveen Talwar (New Delhi, India) Rockland Hospitals

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This price is incredible, I thought Externals only was the only way someone could reach a price this low.

Would be very interesting seeing a diary from this doctor. His credentials look pretty impressive, i bet it would feel really  ty for some people who pay 100 k for those big name doctors like Paley etc if somebody can do the surgery safely with this kind of price. Of course it is India so who knows this could be a dangerous option.

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He seems like a very good option in India! He is a qualified LL surgeon with lots of overseas training (including Paley) I am wondering whether he has performed bilateral CLL on patients before and their outcome? Also whether he performs LATP?
Thank you very much Kilokahn for finding and posting Dr.Talwar's details here. It keeps our options open to credible yet within price range doctors

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Quote from: Adriano on April 04, 2014, 06:29:29 AMSome times i wnder why i am still short when i could have LL for under u$10K   lol

Sometimes I wonder that too, but I need to see a good amount of successful diaries before I go that cheap.  I'm glad I wasn't ready for LL last year and went to India by mistake.

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Quote from: Polycrates. on April 04, 2014, 12:43:44 AMI sent a request for a consultation/examination before I depart. Perhaps he can actually soothe my qualms about alignment and my toe by actually applying the appropriate method of analysis, rather than telling me everything is fine or that things "will settle down". Of course, I'll let everyone know how I find him.

Hopefully he'll be able to give you suggestions on what to do when you get back home. Will be interesting to know your thoughts on Dr. Talwar once you see him.

Quote from: TheRisingShorty on April 04, 2014, 08:12:02 AMHe seems like a very good option in India! He is a qualified LL surgeon with lots of overseas training (including Paley) I am wondering whether he has performed bilateral CLL on patients before and their outcome? Also whether he performs LATP?
Thank you very much Kilokahn for finding and posting Dr.Talwar's details here. It keeps our options open to credible yet within price range doctors

The hospital rep said he's performed CLL before, but I didn't get into the specifics of whether the patients were local or international. I think most of his lengthening has been deformity correction. One of the articles I found with Dr Talwar was a story in Hindustan Times about how he did a deformity correction on a woman from Nigeria whose leg was shorter than the other by 5.5 cm.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/delhi-docs-put-nigerian-woman-back-on-her-feet/article1-496032.aspx


I'll be seeing three additional doctors in Delhi and will post their information here as well. The very first consultation I will have when I arrive in Delhi will be with Dr. Talwar, as Rockland Hospitals will be picking me up from the airport. I'm keeping Dr Talwar as an option based on his resume, but I cannot commit or anything until I get a feel for how he is in person.

So my choices are:

1) Dr Mangal Parihar
2) Dr Naveen Talwar

I did a rough cost breakdown for how much it would cost me to get lengthening done with either doctor. It may be different based on a few things but it gives a good idea.

Dr Mangal Parihar Cost Estimate
Surgical Fees: 900,000 INR ($14,965)
Hotel:  $4,500 - $,6000
Food: $2,000
Flight to Mumbai from Delhi (two ways): $350.00
Flight to India and back: $3,000
Bills from USA while in India: $4,500

Total: $29,350  - $31,000

Dr Naveen Talwar Cost Estimate
Surgical Fees: $7,000 - 8,500
Hotel: $4,500 – $6,000
Food: $2,000
Flight to India and back: $3,000
Bills back home: $4,500

Total: $21,000  - $22,500


The reason I am leaning toward Dr Parihar is based on a couple things. Firstly, because he has a lot of youtube videos I already have a better idea of his level of expertise in Ilizarov and what his personality is like through his lectures. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, although both Dr Parihar and Dr Talwar trained under Dr Paley and have knowledge in Ilizarov, limb lengthening and deformity correction is Dr Parihar's primary interest. He's doing it all the time and it's his main focus. Dr Talwar's primary interest is not in limb lengthening, but rather on hip and knee problems, even though he has the credentials to make him very knowledgeable in Ilizarov methods. I just have that extra layer of confidence in Dr Parihar that complications that pop up would be dealt with appropriately. That's not to say Dr Talwar wouldn't do the same, but because I don't know anything yet about the man himself, that degree of security is not yet there. Though that could change.

I can say I'd feel more safe going to Dr Talwar than Drs Sarin or Sringari that's for sure.

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Just got back from Talwar. He was limited in his ability to examine my lengthening  because I failed to bring all of the x-rays I have taken. I only brought my latest x-ray, from April 5. From his analysis of the x-ray, he gathered that the lengthening and nailing were done correctly, but his major concern was my callus  formation. He said it was very bad and that I risk the chance of non-union. This startled me as I thought it looked pretty decent. He advised me to wait for one more month and walk with braces he prescribed to have built for me. He said if it's still bad then, I might need a bone graft, and he offered me a price for it. He said if I walk unaided I risk the chance of bending/breaking the nail. We showed him multiple Sringari patients and he was concerned with the callus in all of them. He showed us x-rays of his patients, and their callus throughout distraction is almost as solid as the bone. He believes this is what callus should look like.

As for my toe, he checked for sensation as other doctors have before, and is of the opinion it will come back. He is unsure as to what initially caused it, but said to give it time. That's three opinions now (Sringari, Talwar, Parihar) who believe it will come back, so that eases my mind a bit. He measured my legs for discrepancy, and determined that any discrepancy is negligible. He also told me I don't have x-legs, or bow legs, and that my alignment is fine. However, he was of the opinion x-legs are impossible to get with LON due to the nail. I know Sarin patients have x-legs, but I didn't press him further on this. I assume he meant as long as the nail is inserted correctly (which he stated mine was), then x-legs cannot occur.

Few things I deduced from the meeting (this is sure to peak Kilokahn's interest):

--Dr. Talwar is a big proponent of monorails. He said he thinks Ilizarov is too tedious and archaic, and stated he would use monorails on both femur and tibia for all prospective LL patients.

--By his own admission, LL is not one of his primary interests, but proved that he does have extensive training and experience with it by showing x-rays of many of his patients.

--Has attended three fellowships with Dr. Paley (Dror to him). Paley supposedly refers many Indian patients to Dr. Talwar, and he is the primary contact for him in New Delhi.

--Is definitely a kind man and is very thorough in his examinations. He touched my legs more in 5 min than Sringari has the whole way through my lengthening process. Answered all my questions with care and patience.

--Believes Sringari does a fine job in limb lengthening but agrees he should be more thorough in his after care and analyses of distraction.

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This is great information, thanks. What a relief about your toe. Are you going to wait the extra month and use braces like he advises? Did the callus formation of the Sringari patients really look that much worse than Dr Talwar's?

I'll have to ask him about why he prefers monorails to Ilizarov because even though they're more archaic there's that chance of malalignment with the monorail devices. Presumably he'd make adjustments as necessary with someone doing externals or LATN before the rod is put in, but from what I understand you can't make those kind of adjustments with the nail inside as with LON. I know Dr Parihar likes using LON also, but he definitely prefers using the classic Ilizarov fixation devices over the monorails. I'll have to ask Dr P about why he doesn't use monorails as much.

Interesting about Dr Talwar's opinion on Sringari doing the fixation properly, but then I wonder how Russianblues's situation happened with the screw sticking out.

Also good to know that he gave you as thorough an analysis as he possibly could and answered your questions. Did you ask him about his opinion on post-operative weight bearing? What was the state of his private clinic like?

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Clinic wasn't much to behold, but I think its primarily used for follow ups and consultations. I doubt you'll even see it if you meet him in hospital. As with most places, it was packed with Indian people waiting to see them and Indians love to stare intently and indefinitely without shame at anyone who seems foreign or out of place. So be prepared for this if you're not Indian looking, lol.

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Polycrates, do you know how much Dr Talwar is charging for Precice?

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They don't have plans for precice in the meantime.

As per Rockland Hospitals:

"Our team of doctors have come back to me and unfortunately we cannot use the internal PRECICE nail, therefore will not be using this implant for sometime in the near future."

The hospital knows it is approved for use in India but they don't want to use it as of right now. Parihar would be the only option for precice in India at this point.

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i wish i had known about this doctor before, I would certainly do CLL with him
anyway I tried to arrange appointment with him for tmw, they promised to call me back but they didn't
I'll call in morning.. I want to put nail inside my femur as soon as possible ,,