By Emmanuel Elebeke
Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, last week successfully carried out a valve repair in the heart of a patient. The surgery which was carried out by a team of seven surgeons was completed after few hours of the exercise at the surgery department of the hospital.

Good Health Weekly gathered that this feat positioned the hospital as the first in Nigeria to achieve such feat.  Before now, no case of valve repair had been recorded in Nigeria on heart patients, except replacement cases.

Head of the Medical Team, Dr. Mohammed Sayeed told Good Health Weekly, that the operation was 100 percent successfully, as there was no complication recorded during and after the operation, adding that the 21- year – old female patient could eat and feel normal minutes after departing from the theatre.

Apart from the valve replacement, Sayeed said that the team had earlier in the week, carried out a valve replacement on a 58 year old woman before proceeding for the repair operation.

Sayeed explained that the repaired valve was marked for operation after it was discovered to be infected adding that the leakage could have taken the life of the patient, if the leakage was not detected early.  ‘’She is lucky that we were able to discover the damage on time and proceeded for the repair, which is better for her, than a replacement with an artificial valve. With this operation, she does not need any medicine to take care of herself again. She is already awake and would be discharged soon.

‘’What we are trying to do is to prove to Nigerians that basic surgery could be done in this hospital. The only thing Nigerians need to improve on is building infrastructure, provision of necessary instruments and increase of personnel. Nigeria has good surgeons that can do successful heart operations.’’

Another member of the team, Dr. Bode Falase described the open heart surgery as a milestone in the history of heart surgery in Nigeria. “It is an open surgery on the heart. Two had been carried out this week, while the third one will be done on Saturday this week. With the successful completion of today’s surgery, it brings the total surgery carried out this year to seven,” said Dr. Falase.

Last year, about 14 cases of heart surgery was recorded in LASUTH and in 2009 12 was recorded. So far, Dr. Falase said a total of 58 heart operations had been completed in the hospital since 2006 and of the this number, only four casualties were recorded.

According to him, the casualties were people whose cases got to advanced stage and couldn’t have survived it because they had stayed long with the disease.

He advised Nigerians to always seek medical attention when they notice problems with the valves in their heart to facilitate early detection and treatment, saying “We live in a stressful environment, where people don’t seek for medical checks, which increases the rate of heart disease.’’

On cost, Falase minor heart surgery could go as N500,000, while more complex ones can go between 1 million and 1.5 million, depending on what the problem is all about. He regretted that patients present very early and many cannot afford th treatment cost.