How minimal access surgery benefits patients – Experts

The minimal access kind of surgery has a lot of benefits for patients over the popular open surgeries done in the country, health experts have said. Consultant Urological Surgeon at Kelina Hospital, Gwarinpa, Abuja , Dr Undie Celsius Ukelina  said minimal access surgeries is the modern way of doing surgery and has fewer complications, less […]

The minimal access kind of surgery has a lot of benefits for patients over the popular open surgeries done in the country, health experts have said.
Consultant Urological Surgeon at Kelina Hospital, Gwarinpa, Abuja , Dr Undie Celsius Ukelina  said minimal access surgeries is the modern way of doing surgery and has fewer complications, less chance of blood transfusion, patients stay little in the hospital, have less pain, and go back home or to work, among others. According to him, minimal access surgery is different from open surgery in the sense that very tiny instruments are used and sometimes the wound or incision  is as small as a punctured needle.
Speaking during this year’s annual outreach programme  organized by Surgical Aid  Foundation (SAF) in collaboration with Kelina Hospital, he said  many people are afraid of surgery because of the severity of the wound ,and  how they will be incapacitated , but with minimal access surgery for kidney stones for instance  more than half of them go home the same day, the other half go home within two to three days after surgery.
He said this is unlike the open method, where the patient stays in the hospital up to a week or more, has to be transfused with blood, in addition to the fact that in the case of reoccurrence, if you open up the kidney once, to go back there becomes very difficult, and the chance of injury to the intestines and other organs is much higher.
He said, “But if you do it endoscopically or laparoscopically (using fibre optic instruments to look into the internal organs, or minimal access procedure that focuses on the abdominal part) you can do it over and over again in future if the person forms another stone without any complications. So minimal access surgery is the current trend all over the world and this is what many Nigerians travel out of the country for.
“ Many hospitals in the country are beginning to acquire the skills and equipment for this surgery and it will be good for our citizens to look around the country instead of spending several hours and spending too much money to travel out of the country for what is available in the country or for procedures that take only a few minutes.”
 He said many people are in need of minimal access surgeries, and it is because it is expensive that Kelina Hospital partnered with  charity organizations like Surgical Aid Foundation to fund some of the surgeries for indigent patients.
A Gynaecologist at Wuse District Hospital, Dr Seyi Asaolu  said minimal access surgery has a lot of benefits for women over the open surgery saying that for cases of fibroids for instance, the open type leaves a scar on the tummy  and this can cause complications in the future. He said when a patient is well selected for minimal access surgery, there is no contraindication, and absolutely any gynaceological surgery can be done through the minimal access approach.
Board member Surgical Aid Foundation, Dr Friday Odey said from 2011 to date over 66 million naira has been spent by the foundation on patients who are in need of minimal access surgeries but cannot afford them.