Lagos: Tristate Hospital Pioneers Minimal Invasive Heart Surgery in Nigeria
Tristate Hospital, Lagos has achieved a double medical breakthrough in minimal invasive surgery.
The specialty hospital based in Lekki recently performed the first Coronary Artery Bypass grafting, or off-Pump CABG, surgery in Nigeria.
Tristate Hospital also carried out the first mitral valve replacement surgery, which was a repair rather than a replacement.
Disclosing the medical feats in an interview, the Managing Director/CEO of the hospital, Professor Kamar Adeleke, said an off-pump CABG is performed without the use of a heart-lung machine (cardiopulmonary bypass).
Explaining, Adeleke, an Interventional cardiologist, said, “What this translates to is that the heart continues to pump to provide blood to the rest of the body during the surgery.
“Off-pump bypass surgery involves a smaller incision; it is a minimally invasive procedure that enables a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery. It also reduces the risk of a number of postsurgical complications.”
Adeleke noted that unlike the more traditional on-pump CABG method of performing bypass surgery, the off-pump CABG is a relatively new procedure that does not require the use of a lung and heart (cardiopulmonary bypass) machine.
Read Also:
Read Also: Nigeria Has Only Two Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratories By Salisu Na’inna Dambatta
“These two major first-in-Nigeria procedures are being carried out at the Tristate Hospital facility, among other great exploits,” he said.
According to the surgeon, the first off-pump CABG at the hospital was successfully carried out on an 81-year-old female patient.
Noting that the patient is currently recovering well, he said that Tristate is equipped to conduct 2-3 of the procedures daily, even as he explained that a session takes an average of three hours to complete, compared to the traditional open heart surgery that could take up to 15 hours or more at a stretch.
“Historically, the way you carry out heart surgery is to open up the chest, then put the patient on a respirator, sedate the patient, and then you have to now make an incision to expose the heart.
“Depending on what you are doing, for instance, if you are doing the valves inside the heart, you have to open up the heart itself. To do that, you have to stop the heart completely and connect it to the heart-lung machine.
“That is what we have been doing for years. but now we have commenced minimally invasive procedures, which are faster, safer, require a shorter hospital stay, and are more financially feasible.
“To do a non-invasive surgery like this would cost $150,000–$250,000 in the US, but it is far more cost-effective here in Nigeria, in addition to the fact that you do not have to travel out.”
