New Delhi (PTI): He came all the way from America with apprehensions but now Kim Lewis Busk is happy that he took the flight to India since he no longer suffers from disc degeneration, a disease he has been suffering from the last 10 years.

In a first of the kind operation conducted in India and possibly in Asia, a team headed by Dr Harshavardhan Hegde of Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon in Haryana has conducted a four level disc replacement surgery.

Though, single disc replacement surgeries have been performed before, Hegde who heads the Department of Orthopedics and Spine Surgery at the hospital, said four discs have not been replaced at the same time before.

"The exciting aspect in this operation is that four discs of the same patient have been replaced at the same time in different parts of his body. This was never done before in Asia," Hegde told PTI.

During the eight-hour-long operation, he said, two lumbar discs (lower back) and two cervical discs (neck) were replaced.

"One option was to have a fusion surgery and the other was to have a disc replacement surgery which is more complicated but has faster recovery," the doctor said.

Giving credit to his team which also includes Vascular surgeon Dr Hasan Terhani from the US, now practicing in India, Hegde said the risk involved in single disc replacement surgery is very high.