Pune surgeon’s novel method puts wrestlers back on the mat, helps them win championship

Pune’s 26-year-old Shivraj Rakshe and 27-year-old Abhijeet Katke won their respective Maharashtra Kesari and Hind Kesari titles earlier this month, not because of their prowess but because of the way they rose above their excruciating injuries, ably assisted by arthroscopic surgery and rehabilitation.

Katke, a sportsman from a wrestler family, was just 17 when he suffered a nasty injury to his dominant right shoulder during a wrestling bout and avulsed his subscapularis muscle (a very powerful muscle). He went in for an arthroscopic repair as this was minimally invasive and involved just four pinpoint holes in the shoulder. “Since I deal with a lot of wrestlers, I have the provision of longer European instruments meant for use in such injuries,” Dr Babhulkar says.

Abhijeet Katke, a sportsman from a wrestler family, was just 17 when he suffered a nasty injury to his dominant right shoulder during a wrestling bout and avulsed his subscapularis muscle.

Katke recovered and joined wrestling with such vigour that he represented India in the World Junior Wrestling championship in 2016, was a runner-up at Maharashtra Kesari in December 2016, represented India at the U23 Asian championships at Ulan Bator, won the ultimate title of Maharashtra Kesari in 2017, was runner-up at the National Wrestling Championship in 125 kg category in 2019. Unfortunately, Katke suffered another injury in the opposite left non-dominant shoulder. This was a major ligament tear, which also needed repair with arthroscopic surgery, Dr Babhulkar recalls.

The surgeon explained to Katke that he would repair the tear as naturally as possible and assured him success. An anatomical repair was performed, without resorting to any bone grafting. “It is creditable that even after a second surgery, Katke recovered and came back with equal vengeance and in seven months post-surgery started picking up medals,” says Dr Babhulkar. Katke achieved the ultimate pinnacle by winning India’s Hind Kesari title by beating his opponent 5-0 at the Hind Kesri championships in Hyderabad this month.

“Rakshe had an unusual injury of his non dominant left shoulder due to a Superior Labrum, Anterior to Posterior — SLAP — ligament tear of the upper socket of shoulder. The biceps tendon is attached to this top ligament, and this was badly damaged too. Shivraj was offered surgery and I had complete conviction that we could get him back in fighting shape in due time,” says Dr Babhulkar, who is the founder-president of the Shoulder and Elbow Society of India.

Shivraj Rakshe had an unusual injury of his non dominant left shoulder due to a Superior Labrum, Anterior to Posterior — SLAP — ligament tear of the upper socket of shoulder

Rakshe, who belongs to Rajgurunagar in Khed, Pune district and now stays at the training academy at Katraj, had earlier suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in the knee while competing for the Maharashtra Kesari wrestling championship in 2017. “There was a brief gap and soon I started practising after the surgery and rehabilitation,” says Rakshe, whose grandfather Dashrath and father Kaluram have been wrestling champions. “I owe it to them and their faith in me,” he says. However, he suffered another wrestling injury in December 2021 and had incurable pain and weakness in his left shoulder. He recovered post-surgery and trained hard to emerge victorious at the Maharashtra Kesari state level wrestling championship. “In addition to arthroscopic surgeries, both wrestlers sincerely followed our shoulder rehabilitation programme and in exactly six months, were ready to rejoin wrestling. Their progress is now unstoppable,” Dr Babhulkar adds.

“In Europe, for contact athletes, surgeons do not prefer repairing the ligament as this may not be robust enough to allow resumption to pre-injury level. They prefer an open surgery with additional bone grafting aka Latarjet”, says Dr Babhulkar who firmly believes that this is akin to using a cannon to kill a rat. “I have maintained that an anatomical repair (repair back to original) is the correct technique, and it is the responsibility of the treating surgeon to avoid overdoing the repair for fear of failure,” says he.

“At a recent closed-door conference in France, I explained my stance to the European surgeons, which was in conflict with the present European doctrine. I can confirm that all the wrestlers on which I have performed procedures have not only returned to their original form but also won the highest honour without having to resort to an excessively non-anatomical, open bone grafting surgery. This is rather pertinent to our current population, who need to understand the difference between arthroscopic anatomical restoration versus bone grafting surgeries,” Dr Babhulkar says.

Nikhil Kadam, Maharashtra Kesri, 2022, Amol Barate, Hind Kesri in 2013, Ravi Kumar Katulu, silver medallist at Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014 are robust examples of arthroscopic repair surgeries and have excelled at the highest stage.