A “state-of-the art” spine treatment centre — with equipment worth $5 million — will be set up at Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, in collaboration with experts from the US and the UK.

The centre will provide the “latest treatment” in spine deformity, back pain and disc problems. The underprivileged will only have to pay for the bed and the medication. For the rest, the services will come at a subsidised rate.

Operation Straight Spine, an organisation of orthopaedic spine surgeons from the US and the UK, has tied up with Seva Pratishthan to provide the treatment facilities.

As a prelude to the setting up of the centre, a team of eight will conduct a surgery camp at the hospital from December 10 to 15. Orthopaedic spine surgeons J.R. McConnell (from Allentown, US) and Ujjwal K. Debnath (from Cardiff, UK) will be in the team.

During a pilot project in November 2006, eight underprivileged patients were operated on free.

Meditronic-Sofamor Danek, a US-based company, has donated the “expensive” surgical implants, said a hospital official.

Among the disorders to be treated at the centre are spondylolisthesis and prolapsed intervertebral disc (PID). Spondylolisthesis is slippage of one vertebra over another, causing narrowing of the canal through which the spinal cord passes.

“It causes acute pain and affects the nerves,” explained Tapas Chakraborty, the head of the orthopaedic department of the hospital. PID causes severe low back pain, induced by wrong sitting posture.

The centre, for the first time in eastern India, will offer spine treatment with bone morphogenic protein, which boosts bone growth and fusion of two bones.

The protein is administered between bones after correcting the deformity. Other implants, like rods, hooks, screws and the spacer, are also available.