The Chief Medical Director of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Prof Chris Bode, has advised Nigerians to embrace minimal access surgery. Bode, who was represented by the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, LUTH, Prof Wasiu Adeyemo, made this call during a training session organised by the Laparoscopic Surgery Society of Nigeria to mark the 8th international workshop on laparoscopic surgery.

 

He said, “When we talk about laparoscopy surgery, we talk about minimal access to the body. What this means is that you are not going to make an open wound appear in the body of patients during surgery. Studies have shown that making an open cut during surgery is associated with a lot of complications. So, the whole world is now making keyhole surgery. The traditional open surgery has done a lot of damage to so many bodies and Nigeria must not be left behind in acquiring knowledge on how to conduct surgeries more safely.

“When you compare minimal access and open wound surgery, you will discover that we should opt for minimal access. The open wound takes days to heal and can even get complicated but for minimal access, the patient is discharged and fit a few hours after the surgery.”

 

Also, the president, Laparoscopic Surgery Society of Nigeria, Dr Olujimi Coker, said the training aimed to ensure the safety of patients.

 

“The emphasis is on patients’ safety and to ensure that we perform procedures in the right and appropriate manner with good outcomes. And we’ve been doing this for five years now. What we do is go through a series of didactic lectures followed by some laboratory works using simulators and then we bring experts in to perform the operations on the patients with a live link to the lecture theatre. That will give an interaction between the surgeons and the participants,” Coker said.