The management of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, on Wednesday, said it has successfully performed the first Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (EVAR) repair in Nigeria.
A statement by the institution, signed by Mr Tunde Olofintila, Director, Corporate Affairs, said the rare interventional procedure was performed by a multi-disciplinary team of experts at the institution’s Multi-System Hospital facility.
According to the statement, the procedure was led by Dr. Hammed Ninalowo and assisted by Dr. Yemi Johnson and Dr. Dave Dhiren on a patient with abdominal aortic aneurism.
The statement described aneurysm as a bulge in the wall of vessels in the body due to inherent weakness in the wall.
“This often results in the bloating of the vessels and subsequent rupture if left untreated and could lead to the death of the person.
“The aorta is a major blood vessel that takes blood from the heart to all the organs in the body at high velocity.
“A complex procedure, Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (EVAR) is often resorted to in order to fix anorthic aneurysm in the abdomen percutaneous.
“It is called endovascular because a doctor repairs the aneurysm from the inside of the damaged blood vessel (the aorta) through a minimal access procedure.
“This has the inherent advantages of reduced patient’s stay in the hospital, morbidities and other incidental cost,” the statement said.
The statement said the standard practice is for the interventional radiologist to engage some special catheters to move a tube called stent graft through the arteries until it reaches the aorta.
According to the statement, the graft is then expanded within the aorta at the site of the aneurysm after which the Radiologist attaches the graft to the blood vessel.
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“This naturally stabilizes the aneurysm and prevents it from rupturing.
“Until this index case, EVAR has never been done anywhere in Nigeria or in West Africa.
“The availability of these procedures offers several advantages, including curbing outward medical tourism, reduction in the need for foreign exchange which is currently very scarce in the country.
“It therefore remains undisputable that this is the first time this procedure is being carried out in Nigeria and possibly in West Africa,” the statement added.
It also maintained that such highly sophisticated procedure can only be carried out in a facility like ABUAD Multi-System Hospital where modern state-of-the-art facilities are available for the required multi-disciplinary team.
“These includes an interventional Radiologist, Cardiologist, Cardiovascular Surgeon, Nephrologist, Anaesthesiologist and a functioning Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory expert, among others.
“ABUAD had by this successful operation again positively demonstrated its ability and capability to solve issues of AVER as a result of which Nigerians no longer need to travel abroad for their Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, (EVAR) issues,” the statement added.
It listed other specialized surgeries that are not readily available in the country but had been routinely carried out in the institution to include Open Heart surgeries, for repair of complex congenital anomalies and valve replacements, Cardiac.
Others are Catheterization with coronary intervention, Brain surgeries and repair of congenital.
Others are vascular malformation, Spine surgeries, including correction of deformities, total joint replacement surgeries including revisions and adult reconstruction surgeries including correction of limb deformities, limb lengthening among several others.