‘Self-diagnosis could worsen health’

‘Self-diagnosis could worsen health’

PUNE: A 35-year-old woman software engineer from the city tried to self-treat herself through the Internet. After her symptoms got worse, she visited a city-based hospital with complaints of imbalance while walking and gradual loss of control over urination. Upon examination, she was diagnosed with a tumour in her spinal cord.

Spinal cord tumours are benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous) masses arising from or around the spinal column. As the tumour grows, the patient gradually starts developing paralysis in hands or legs and loses control over urine and motions.

According to Dr Pravin Survashe, Consultant Neurosurgeon at Columbia Asia Hospital, Pune, who treated the 35-year-old woman, the patient developed a problem in walking and gradually could no more control urination, a situation that interfered in her work. However, she kept postponing her visit to a neurosurgeon and tried home remedies for the problem and sought the help of physiotherapy sessions on the Internet.

Dr Survashe said that as soon as the patient walked into the OPD, the doctor suspected a problem with her spinal cord looking at her gait and got an MRI of the spine done which revealed a tumour in mid-back region.

“The tumour had completely compressed the spinal cord and required complex surgery to correct the condition. We counselled the patient thoroughly before the surgery as it involved a risk of complete paralysis of her legs. However, the surgery was unavoidable as she already had started developing paralysis due to the tumour,” said Dr Survashe. 

He performed a minimally invasive surgery wherein the entire tumour measuring 3.2 cm was removed through a small incision.

“The surgery went well and the patient was discharged the same day and she started walking on the second day. Her paralysis improved over the period of one month and she joined work again. This case is an important one which shows that one should consult a doctor in time rather than self-diagnosis and self-treatment based on the Internet knowledge. Any tingling, numbness, weakness or stiffness in hands or legs should not be neglected as every one might not be as lucky as her,” said Dr Survashe.

Echoing similar views, Dr Meenakshi Deshpande, a high-risk pregnancy consultant based in the city noted that at least 10 cases of self-treatment come to her clinic every month.

“In the case of pregnancy with jaundice and pregnancy with blood pressure, patients tend to take self-treatment. Many patients tend to visit the doctors late as they have self-diagnosed their illnesses. For pregnancy with jaundice, many women start treatment on their own of normal jaundice. However, for women with jaundice in allopathy, the treatment is different. This deteriorates their health and puts the life of the baby in danger,” said Dr Deshpande.

She added that patients should search about the disease they have but should leave the diagnosis to doctors. “In most cases, the patients who try to self-diagnose themselves end up thinking that they have cancer. When they are told that the symptoms are the same but it’s not cancer, they end up not taking any treatment modality at all. Late diagnosis and such attitude from the patient only deteriorates their health which later becomes very serious,” said Dr Deshpande.

Dr Pavan Hanchanale from Jupiter Hospital also said that many patients come with a preconceived notion of what has happened to them.

“They don’t trust the doctor’s diagnosis and so they consult many doctors. Hence it can lead to late detection and also deteriorate the health of the patient. The simple example is patients continue to take acidity tablets because they feel acidity is the cause. But in many cases it was found that patients have ulcers or cancerous tumours which went undiagnosed because of self-treatment,” added Dr Hanchanale.

- Patients should search about the disease they have but should leave the diagnosis to doctors.
- Patients don’t trust the doctor’s diagnosis and so they consult many doctors. Hence it can lead to late detection and also deteriorate the health of the patient. 

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