Ibom specialist hospital records success in brain, spinal cord surgeries
By Isaac Job
Ibom Specialist Hospital, a quaternary medical facility in Akwa Ibom State, says it has recorded significant success in the brain, spinal cord and other critical surgeries that push Nigerians to spend millions abroad.
Speaking with newsmen in Uyo at the weekend, the Chief Medical Director, Prof Emmanuel Ekanam, said the recent extraction of brain tumor through a patient’s nostrils has indeed proven that what leads many Nigerians to medical tourism can be achieved in Nigeria.
Prof Ekanam who was represented at the media parley by Dr Udeme Ekrikpo, a Consultant Physician and Nephrologist, and Adjunct Director of Clinical Services and Training, Ibom Specialist Hospital, said the patient came with a tumour in the pituitary gland.
“We have done a wide range of brain and spinal cord surgeries in the last one month, starting from simple things like putting in a shunt for people that have increased pressure in the brain, to advanced surgeries like brain tumor.
So the most recent was a patient that came in with a tumour in the pituitary gland. “That tumour sits at the base of the brain.
We didn’t have to open up the brain, so the experts that did the surgery went through the nostrils into the brain and got the tumour extracted to the amazement of the patient for a fee of N3m against N6m paid for the same operation abroad.
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Ekanem said that the state government has set up a digital theatre which could allow specialists to have live interactions with other specialists from other fields while carrying out a critical surgery.
This approach, he said would allow the best hands to contribute from wherever they may be and also decongest the theatre.
Ekanem who also used the forum to announce preparedness to set up a cardiac catheterization laboratory in a month’s time said such would allow people with blocked arteries in the heart, which usually causes “heart attack” to have easy access to medical care.
