The Sokoto State owned Orthopedic Hospital, Wamakko, has successfully conducted three total knee replacement surgeries, the first in the history of the state, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Nuradeen Altine told newsmen in Wamakko on Monday that the surgeries were conducted on two male adults, aged 60 and 65.
Altine said: “Two knees were replaced in both legs of one patient, while one knee was replaced in another patient.
”The successful surgeries were conducted on March 25 by a team of Surgeons from the hospital and their colleagues from the Orthopedic Hospital, Dala, Kano.
”The surgery is capital intensive because it involves the use of sophisticated equipment and titanium metal which is very expensive and had to be imported.
” We hope the Sokoto State Government will continue to support the hospital with equipment, logistics, to have more of such operations.”
Commenting on the feat,the State Health Commissioner, Dr Balarabe Kakale, said that patients can now save a lot of money for knee and other bone treatments.
“The three operations were each conducted at about One Million Naira.
“The patients would have spent nearly N10 million on each knee replacement surgery in India, Germany or other parts of the world.
“Patients would no longer need to travel abroad for such operations and this would drastically reduce medical tourism.
“The state government would continue to support the three-year old hospital to conduct such highly subsidized surgeries and other routine activities, ” Kakale said.
NAN reports that total knee replacement surgery is done on patient if one or both knees are damaged due to frequent use, resulting in Osteoarthritis, a disease of the joint, due to aging.
The disease causes a lot of pains on patients and often prevents one from walking.