Deformities are “public health problem”, says spine surgeon

A doctor who helped pioneer spine surgeries in Ghana has said Nigerian government will have to recognise orthopaedic diseases as a public health problem in order to better the practice and care for people with orthopaedic problems. Dr Ohaneba Boachie-Adjei is billed as a guest speaker at the first-ever spine surgery conference in Nigeria on […]

A doctor who helped pioneer spine surgeries in Ghana has said Nigerian government will have to recognise orthopaedic diseases as a public health problem in order to better the practice and care for people with orthopaedic problems.

Dr Ohaneba Boachie-Adjei is billed as a guest speaker at the first-ever spine surgery conference in Nigeria on Friday, alongside Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai.

Hours after arriving Abuja from Ghana, Boachie-Adjei told Daily Trust: “It shouldn’t be just malaria and HIV that we are always talking about.”

He suggested increasing the capacity of orthopaedic surgeons by increasing the capacity of residency training programmes across hospitals to expose young doctors to the complex specialised surgeries.

“It is only by doing that that you prepare for the next generation of orthopaedic consultants who will be taking care of people,” Boachie-Adjei said.

“There are accidents all over the place. People are fracturing their bones everywhere. Kids are coming up with deformities, either from [tuberculosis] or congenital.

“These are people with good minds. What’s going to happen is they are going to be crippled and disabled and not become productive members of society.

“It is really incumbent for government to increase capacity of orthopaedic surgeons.”

Two years, Ummi Salma Abdullahi (pictured above) made headlines as surgeons tried to repair her deformed spine, which resulted from a childhood infection with tuberculosis.

Boachie-Adjei is credited with push a volunteer programme that’s drawn more than 500 health care workers since 1998 to perform orthopaedic surgeries on hundreds of patients in Ghana and from across the continent at the FOCOS Hospital in Ghana.

Organisers of Nigeria’s conference say the hospital has become a regional training centre for surgeons in complex spine deformity surgeries.

At least six specialist hospitals work in orthopaedics in Nigeria, but spine surgeons are rare compared with population.

The conference is to “engage Nigerians, policymakers and leaders of thought in deformity management, highlight needs for intervention and provide platform to mentor young school children to become future spine deformity surgeons,” said Omuwa Oyakhire in a statement.