Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday underwent arthroscopic surgery on her left knee at the SSKM Hospital to drain out fluid accumulated there on the portion.

A team of doctors comprising Dr Rajesh Pramanik, head of physical medicine, and a senior professor in radiology department, performed the procedure to drain out the fluid from the affected left knee. She was shifted to the VVIP cabin no. twelve and half at the Woodburn ward after the surgical procedure which took around two hours.

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Miss Banerjee along with her nephew and all India general secretary Mr Abhishek Banerjee left for her kalighat residence around 7.20 pm from the hospital. She was found getting into a car bound for her residence very slowly. Mr Banerjee and security personnel helped her to sit in the front of the car.

She came out of the Woodburn Ward sitting on wheelchair.

Dr Monimoy Bandyopadhyay, principal cum director of the SSKM hospital as well Institute of Post

Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGME&R), said that the doctors drained out synovial fluid, a thick liquid located between joints, from the chief minister’s affected left knee. The procedure was successful and she was kept for observation after the operation.

She has been advised by the doctors to stay at the hospital for at least one night but she opted to go home. She has been asked to take rest and movement has been restricted strictly, Dr Bandyppadhyay said.

Physiotherapists from SSKM Hospital would go to her residence regularly to perform physiotherapy on her knee. Doctors have also advised her not to apply pressure on her knee.

Miss Banerjee was taken to the dexa-scan unit at the UCM Building inside the hospital complex along AJC

Bose Road around 2 pm to get the exact condition of fluid located on her knee. Then she was taken to the Woodburn Ward for surgery.

Miss Banerjee on 28 June had sustained ligament injuries on her left knee and hip joints after her chopper, an Airbus EC135, made an emergency landing at an army airbase in Salugara in the Siliguri area after running into inclement weather. She was in north Bengal to attend an election meeting in Jalpaiguri.

She was rushed to the SSKM Hospital in the afternoon of the same day after landing at the N S C Bose international airport. She flew back to Kolkata from Bagdogra airport.

Doctors advised her to take rest for a week at her Kalighat residence and use crepe bandage and eat painkillers as and when she required.

On Monday, Miss Banerjee addressed an election rally in Durajpur of Birbhum virtually from her residence and said, “Opposition parties tried to mock my injuries to malign me when I could have died in the helicopter accident.”

Speaking to voters in Dubrajpur, she said, “I am better but still have pain in my hips and legs and that is why I am undergoing therapies for four hours daily. So, I can’t meet you physically at this time of rural polls.”