The University College Hospital (UCH),
Ibadan, the first teaching hospital in
Nigeria, has scored another first in
medicine, with its open heart surgery, a
feat which attracted wide accolades.
The University College Hospital (UCH)
Ibadan, Nigeria’s premier teaching
hospital has recorded a major
breakthrough in medicine in the country
when it successfully carried out a
“bloodless” open-heart surgery on a
patient.
The operation known as Coronary Artery
By-pass Gland (CABG) was carried out on
19-year-old Kazeem Ojo by a team of
surgeon from the hospital lead by Chief
Medical Director, Professor Temitope
Alonge.
The patient was expectedly happy at the
feat performed by the hospital which has
drawn commendation from health
professionals.
The cheery news on the successful CABG
was broken last week by Alonge who said
the surgery was carried out without
complication. This indeed was a major
breakthrough for UCH and the Nigerian
Medical practitioners.
An elated Alonge, said with the feat,
Nigerians would no longer need to travel
abroad for such tertiary treatment as
more Nigerian doctors are currently being
trained to offer such medical care in the
hospital.
The orthopaedic and trauma surgeon
said, “following acquisition of the Cardiac
capitalisation machine by Toshiba in 2011,
it was installed and put to use in 2013,
UCH is able to resuscitate its open heart
surgery. That allows us to evaluate the
state of the arteries supplied by the heart
muscles and if for any reasons there is
any blockage, the blood vessels can be
opened up with the balloon, but if the
damage is extensive such that we cannot
do the so called balloon and geo-plasty,
then we resolve to open heart surgery.
“This technically means that the chest will
be split into two, the heart is exposed
and then, the blood that is entering and
leaving the heart is diverted into a
machine called the heart-lung machine
and we stop the heart.
“So, technically the person is dead and
the blood is going through the machine
and going back into the patient and then
repair work are carried out on the heart
and after that we wake the heart up
again.”
Professor Alonge was not alone in the
euphoria of the celebration of the great
achievement. Members of the Nigeria
Medical Association (NMA) and Nigerian
Union of Allied Health Professionals also
came to savour in the joy of the medical
breakthrough.
The national President, Nigerian Union of
Allied Health Professionals, Dr. Felix
Olukayode Faniran, described the feat as
a great breakthrough.
According to him, “the essence of our
being here is to examine health care
practices in the country, one of them is
what you heard Professor Alonge said
that they just had a breakthrough in open
heart surgery being carried out at UCH.”
Speaking further on the successful
bloodless open heart surgery, Professor
Alonge said that issue of open heart
surgery was not new in Nigeria, the ability
to resuscitate the procedure started last
year at UCH.
He explained further that the University of
Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu was
actually the first institution to have
embarked on open heart surgery but the
challenges have always been that of
equipment, manpower and ability to
sustain it.
To offer its services to others in the
country, the management of the
institution last week invited well-meaning
Nigerians and corporate bodies to
support an endowment which it launched
to further assist patients needing open
heart surgery but could not afford the
high cost of treatment.
He invited all Nigerians to support the
good cause by assisting in raising the
standard of medical care been offered in
the hospital.
According to him, the population of
Nigerians seeking medical treatment for
cardiac surgeries such as open-heart
surgeries, hole in the heart conditions in
foreign countries would take a downturn,
as patients would now be able to access
these advanced surgeries at the state-of-
art Cardiac Catheter Resuscitation Centre
(CATH LAB) in UCH.
He added: “There is no better place to
have a cardiac surgery than in the country
you reside. Proximity of care is important
for recovery because follow up treatment
is needed for some cardiac cases.
“This facility is comparable to what
obtains in India, United States and the
United Kingdom. Nigeria would now be
the place to come to for cardiac surgeries
in Africa. That would be our medical
tourism.”
The University College Hospital (UCH),
Ibadan was established in November
1952, in response to the dire need for the
training of medical personnel and other
healthcare professionals for the country
and the West African sub-region, remains
the tertiary hospital with the highest
number of patients on its list annually.
The oldest teaching hospital in Nigeria,
has evolved over the years, with the finest
tradition of infrastructure renewal to keep
abreast with modern technology, to be
able to offer the best medical care
obtainable anywhere in the modern
world.
The management of the hospital,
comprising of renowned medical
practitioners, has in addition to Federal
Government efforts in refurbishing the
teaching hospital, taken steps to widen
the scope of services provided with the
resuscitation of the open heart surgical
procedure of the hospital
Since its inception, the hospital, which is
strategically located in heart of the city of
Ibadan, has recorded so many feats in
medical care, training and human
development.
In the area of training and human
development, UCH, according to
Professor Alonge, has trained over 6,051
doctors, 501 dentists, 4,513 nurses, 2,307
midwives, 471 peri-operative nurses,
1,062 laboratory scientists, 576
environmental health officers tutors, 326
primary health care tutors, 590
community health officers, 640
physiotherapists and 551 health
information management personnel.
The patients turn out in the accident and
emergency (A&E) Department of the
hospital alone averages 6,000 annually
and about 160,000 new patients are seen
in the various out-patient clinics every
year.
In May 2006, a surgical team successfully
performed open-heart surgery on three
paediatric patients, an important
landmark in medicine in Nigeria.
Over the years, UCH has also produced
many core professionals for the nation’s
health sector, and more of its products
have continued to excel overseas.
What is open heart surgery?
An open heart bypass surgery is
performed under general anesthesia,
which requires that the patient be on a
ventilator during surgery.
Surgery begins with harvesting the blood
vessels that will become the grafts. The
saphenous vein in the leg is commonly
used because it is long enough to create
multiple grafts. If the saphenous vein
cannot be used, vessels from the arm can
be used instead. The left internal
mammary artery is used for a single graft
and is taken once the chest is opened for
surgery.
Once the saphenous vein has been
recovered, the chest is opened by making
an incision along the sternum, or
breastbone. The surgeon then cuts the
sternum, allowing the chest cavity to be
opened, giving the surgeon access to the
heart.
In the traditional CABG procedure, the
heart is stopped with a potassium
solution so the surgeon is not attempting
to work on a moving vessel, and the
blood is circulated by a heart-lung
machine. At this time the heart-lung
machine does the work of the heart and
the lungs and the ventilator is not used.
The surgeon places the grafts, either
rerouting blood around the blockage, or
removing and replacing the blocked
vessel. The amount of time on the heart-
lung bypass machine is determined by the
speed at which the surgeon is able to
work, primarily, how many grafts are
needed.
Once the grafts are complete, the heart is
started and provides blood and oxygen to
the body. The sternum is returned to its
original position and closed using surgical
wire, to provide strength the bone needs
to heal, and the incision is closed.
The University College Hospital (UCH),
Ibadan, the first teaching hospital in
Nigeria, has scored another first in
medicine, with its open heart surgery, a
feat which attracted wide accolades.
OSEHEYE OKWUOFU writes. [http://
thenationonlineng.net]
No comments:
Post a Comment