The
Cardiac Centre at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) has succeeded
in filling holes in patients’ hearts by using a special device without
opening up the chest as is usually done, medical reports at the MNH have
confirmed.
Dr Hussein Kidanto, acting director general of the hospital, said
that the use of special devices to treat heart ailments started last
months, with 18 patients put to scanning on heart blood vessels and four
being treated of blocked vessels.
A major treatment was to fill up a hole in the heart to allow blood
vessels to reach a hole, which some infants are born with such a
condition, he said.
In conducting those operations, specialist doctors at MNH worked
with visiting heart specialists from the Prince Sultan Cardiac Centre in
Riyadh, kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who paid a medical visit at the
national facility from May 8 to 16, invited via the good offices of
Muntanda Islamic Trust of Britain.
Dr Kidanto said that the surgery bypass operation has great
advantages to close a heart hole or unblock a vessel without opening up
the chest, as it enables the patient to be discharged within two days of
operation. Earlier the patient would need seven days of hospitalisation
and if no complications arise he or she would be discharged, he said.
This also provides opportunity for other patients to be operated
upon in the same way, enabling more treatments by a less costly and more
efficient way. The patient later continues with his or her income
generating activities as there is no lingering wound on that operation,
he specified.
The top Muhimbili official noted that in calendar 2014 about 400
patients were sent to India for various treatments, with about half of
the number being treated for heart ailments, noting that about 10,000
dollars (about sh20million) is usually required for a heart patient to
be sent to India.
Medical experts resident in the country were fast catching up with
the method and capable of using that equipment on their own, and
accounted for most of the 66 operations that would have cost Sh1.3
billion had they been sent out of the country, he elaborated.
With its catharsis laboratory facility now being used to fill up
holes in the heart by a special device and using stent equipment to
unblock vessels in the heart, Muhimbili National Hospital is becoming
the sub-region’s reference point in that field of medication, he
asserted.
Among visiting medical teams helping to launch the new method in
heart treatment in the country, a two man mission from Virginia in the
United States was led by Prof. Peter Obrien, accompanied by a nursing
officer to operate the catharsis laboratory.
The two arrived in the country on April 13 and ended their camping
stint on April 17, with about 18 patients undergoing unblocking of
vessels by use of stent device, where the team worked with doctors from
the heart surgery unit at the Bugando Referral Hospital and retired
doctors at MNH.
A second medical team with 11 specialists in heart surgery arrived
from the Mission Hospital in Madras, India led by Prof. Ravi, who
specialises in heart surgery for children. The team conducted 42 heart
surgeries in a period of six days, Dr Kidanto noted.
The third group of heart surgery specialists was in the country
from May 8 to 16 from the Riyadh Heart Institute in Saudi Arabia led by
Dr Abdulrahman Redhyan, a consulting adviser on children’s heart
ailments.
The team had 32 specialists including heart surgeons for adults and
children, heart anesthesia specialists, nursing specialists for
intensive care unit for children and other medical experts.
Muhimbili officials expect a fourth specialist group of three
people in the Africa Doctors group from the University of South Carolina
led by Prof. Eric Powers, a consulting adviser on heart diseases, Dr
Kidanto said.
A further group of medical experts, Save a Child’s Heart from
Israel is expected on June 28 to July 5, with the visiting teams helping
to treat patients and provide much needed training for local
specialists, noting further that another group of specialists will enter
the country on July 1 from Turkey.
Meanwhile, Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI) in collaboration
with neurosurgeons from Weill Cornell Medical Centre in New York, US has
successfully performed spinal surgery on 20 patients in the country
saving USD 100,000 in the process.
According to MOI Executive Director Dr Othman Kiloloma, the
operations which started on Monday to yesterday (Friday) were performed
on patients who would have otherwise been taken abroad for further
medication.
The operations were performed by Tanzanian surgeons after
undergoing a two-day training seminar conducted by specialists from
Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, USA.
Addressing reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday Dr Kiloloma said
that a total of 20 patients with spinal and head problems have
successfully undergone a surgery.
Prof. Philip Stieg, the chairman of Neurological Surgery from Weill
Cornell Medical College said that they were happy with the government
of Tanzania for allowing them to share their experience with Tanzanians
as they have been doing it for a long time.
“We have shared our experience with surgeons here at MOI and kindly
hope that this training is going to benefit Tanzanians with spinal
problems” Prof. Stieg said.
“As you know here in the city major accidents are caused by
motorbikes, we also expect that surgeons will manage to serve them well”
he noted.
He also called upon the patients to attend to the hospital as
majority of patients here in Tanzania go to hospital at late stages of
diseases which is bad.
“Due to this tendency we have discovered some patients with
Tuberculosis (TB) in their spine, while in New York there is no such
kind of disease at all,” he said.
He also called upon the government to develop and train more surgeons so that they can be helping the society.
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