BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT YET ANOTHER MKAPA FACILITY FEAT

BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT YET ANOTHER MKAPA FACILITY FEAT
LUDOVICK KAZOKA in Dodoma

03/08/2018
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THE bone marrow transplant service, a procedure to replace a person’s faulty bone marrow stem cells, is set to be introduced at the Benjamin Mkapa Hospital (BMH) in Dodoma.
Doctors use it to treat people with severe blood diseases such as sickle cell anaemia, leukemia, multiple myeloma and certain immune deficiency diseases.
The revelation was made here recently by the hospital’s Executive Director, Dr Alphonce Chandika, saying BMH had already set up a department for the health service with one haematologist.
“We will team up with doctors from abroad to introduce bone marrow transplant service. We are still in talks with the doctors,” said the BMH’s executive director.
Dr Chandika noted that the main goal for setting up BMH was to make it the best and first health facility in the region to offer key services on non-communicable diseases in the country.
He cited services offered by the hospital as dialysis, kidney transplant, cath-lab, haematology, urology, endoscopy, physiotherapy and gastroenterology.
Last month, the hospital registered another achievement after introducing laparoscopic surgery.
The hospital’s Executive Director, Dr Alphonse Chandika, said that BMH had equipped its theatres in all departments with laparoscopic instruments, citing the departments as Ear, Nose and Throat Unit, Internal Medicine, Urology, Orthopaedic and Neuro Surgery.
“We have teamed up with doctors from US to perform laparoscopic surgery for the first time at the hospital,” said the executive director at a media briefing session.
Laparoscopic is an operation performed in the abdomen or pelvis through small incisions with the aid of cameras. The laparoscope aids diagnosis or therapeutic interventions with a few small cuts in the abdomen.
Dr Chandika said there were a number of advantages to the patient with laparoscopic surgery versus an open procedure, saying the advantages include reduced pain due to smaller incisions and haemorrhaging, as well as a shorter recovery period.
“After laparoscopic surgery, a patient spends a short time at hospital before being discharged,” he observed.
Dr Chandika explained that laparoscopic surgery includes operations within the abdominal or pelvic cavities whereas keyhole surgery performed on the thoracic or chest cavity and that the laparoscopic surgery belongs to the broader field of endoscopy.

Bone marrow transplant yet another Mkapa facility feat

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