Veep lauds the establishment of painless surgery centre

Accra, Feb.20, GNA- Ghana is establishing a Keyhole Surgery (Laparoscopic) Centre at Korle bu Teaching Hospital, where the state of the art equipment would be used to carry out painless surgeries without the conventional incision and medication.

The centre, the first in the West African Sub-Region would carry out surgeries on patients, which involves a small incision around the abdomen, which is filled with gas and attached to microscopic cameras to give surgeons access to the defective human anatomy for surgery. Professor Edward Yeboah, past President of the West African College of Surgeons, who originated the project in Ghana, led a team from the International Federation of Societies of Endoscopic Surgeons (IFSES) to call on Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama to brief him about the innovative surgery procedure.

Prof. Tehemton Udwadia from India and President of IFSES and Prof. Jacques Perissat from France, who briefed the Vice President about the visit, said Ghanaian doctors would be trained in Laparoscopic surgery to start the centre.

They said the centre was capital intensive and called for expensive and sustainable maintenance of equipment.

Vice President Mahama expressed the gratitude of the Executive for the model centre, which he said would offer patients the opportunity to go back to their normal activities a day after surgery. He said the centre also fell in line with Government's desire to turn Korle bu into a medical facility of excellence. The basic procedures to be covered for the surgery include diagnostic, appendectomy, hernia repair, basic gynaecological procedures for sterilisation, ectopic pregnancy and ovarian cysts. Members of the IFSES would among other things, provide equipment and train surgeons free of charge.