MORE than 40 patients are expected to benefit from Interventional Radiology services provided in a special camp by health experts at Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) in collaboration with their counterpart from Yale and Emory universities in the US.
According to experts, Interventional Radiology is a medical specialty which provides minimally invasive image - guided diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
The interventional radiology involves the use of X-Ray, MRI, CT-Scan and ultrasound in treating a variety of health conditions or taking samples for investigation.\ Head of Radiology Department at the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Dr Flora Lwakatare told journalists in Dar es Salaam yesterday that there were a number of advantages associated with interventional radiology.
She said through the procedures, a patient does not need to undergo a major operation and it was cost effective. "When this treatment isdone, a patient does not need to undergo a major operation, thus reducing risks and they don't need to stay at the hospital, because they can be discharged on the same day," she said.
She said that MNH in collaboration with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI) organised a special camp for Interventional Radiology which involved training of health experts.
The camp also involved specialist doctors, radiology technicians and nurses from Yale and Emory Universities in the US led by Dr Frank Minja from Yale University, Dr Daglous Silim from Yale and Dr David from Emory University.
She said that various services were offered during the camp, including taking samples from patients which could not be easily accessed without major operations, draining of the obstructed bile duct system (percutaneous trans hepatic biliary drainage), nephrostomy tube placement and abscesses drainage.
She said that the camp will continue until November 9 this year, noting that so far 23 patients have benefited from the services. She added that health experts who were undergoing training were from MNH, MUHAS and Benjamin Mkapa Hospital in Dodoma, MOI and CCBRT Hospital.
Dr Lwakatare commended specialist doctors from the US who volunteered to take part in the special camp. She, however, said that the hospital invested in the purchase of equipment worth 67.8m/- for facilitating treatment during the special camp.
On his part, Dr Frank Minja from Yale University said that they were expecting to provide the services to 20 more people next week. He said that the camp has been so successful due to cooperation they received from Tanzanian doctors.
"It is very costly to dispatch Tanzanian doctors abroad for this training and conduct the procedures to patients, that is why we have decided to come here to train more experts on Interventional Radiology.
Dr Godfrey Mchele, Surgical Gastroenterology and Hematology from the Department of Surgery said that it has been their long term vision to undergo training of interventional radiology so that they could enhance their capacity in the field. He said that some treatment related to liver complications was very difficult, but interventional radiology has been a solution.
Dr Mchele said that his department has been receiving five up to seven patients in a week who need different services related to interventional radiology.
A specialist doctor from MOI, Mechris Mango said that the cost of taking a patient abroad for treatment was more than 8.9m/-, but through the camp, patients were only required to pay for equipment, where a single device can cost 1.5m/-, depending on the complications.
