has recorded another medical feat in the institution, by performing
open-heart surgery on three patients.
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Akin Osibogun, said
LUTH doctors, in collaboration with foreign surgeons, successfully
operated upon three Nigerians aged between 18 months and 23 years.
Osibogun said the 18-month-old baby girl was suffering from
atrioventricular canal defect --a combination of several abnormalities
in the heart that is usually present at birth.
According to the Chairman of LUTH Cardiac Project, Prof. Janet
Ajuluchukwu, the defect occurs if there is a hole between the chambers
of the heart and the valves that regulate blood flow in the heart.
"Atrioventricular canal defect allows extra blood to circulate to the
lungs. Ensuing problems overwork the heart and cause it to enlarge,"
Ajuluchukwu said.
The 23-year-old, an undergraduate, was diagnosed with ventricular
septal defect, another heart defect that leads to the creation of one
or more holes in the wall that separates the right and left ventricles
of the heart; while the last patient, a seven-year-old, had Tetralogy
of Fallot -- a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through the
heart.
Osibogun said by the feat, LUTH had joined the league of Nigerian
hospitals with the capacity to perform open-heart surgery.
He said the ultimate goal was to reduce medical tourism to overseas
hospitals and to give Nigerians value for their money.
"We at LUTH carried out these surgical procedures in collaboration
with our foreign partners, whom we invited from Switzerland, Greece,
Turkey and India.
"The idea behind the assemblage of this international team is for
skills transfer, so that after some time, our home-based physicians
can also perform these surgeries.
"When that happens, it will reduce the cost of getting such procedures
done, and also build Nigerians' confidence in local physicians,"
Osibogun explained.
On why foreign surgeons had to lead the LUTH team, the CMD said that
new programmes required collaboration with experienced professionals
in order to ensure patient safety and stable recuperation after the
procedures.
He advised Nigerians to always present any unusual health symptoms to
the physicians early enough in order to prevent complications and make
treatment effective.
He assured Nigerians that LUTH had requisite work force, as well as
infrastructure to carry out complicated medical procedures, such as
open-heart surgery, and organ transplantation.
He also noted that the hospital had performed successful renal
transplantation, thus repositioning it for better health care
delivery.
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