Boost for neurosurgery in Zim

Ivan Zhakata-Herald Correspondent

More Zimbabweans can now undergo highly delicate surgery, including neurosurgery, ear surgery and other specialist operations in the country following the unveiling of the first Leica PROvido 530 surgical operating microscope at The Avenues Clinic yesterday.

Many Zimbabwean patients were being referred outside the country for neurosurgery and other nervous system operations.

The microscope, valued at €120 000, is used for neurosurgery and other surgical operations except for ophthalmological surgeries.

Neurosurgery is surgery of nervous structures such as nerves, the brain, or the spinal cord.

Avenues Clinic medical director, Professor Godfrey Muguti, said the microscope would facilitate the operations of certain surgical conditions where magnification was needed during surgery.

Prof Muguti said the surgeons who were going to be using the microscope were neurosurgeons, ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeons, plastic surgeons who do micro muscular work and orthopaedic surgeons when they work on the spinal cord.

“In all these areas to do a safe surgical procedure one needs substantial magnification so that the tissues can appear more clearly so that during the process of dissection you minimize the dangers of damaging some of the delicate tissues like nerves and blood vessels.

“As The Avenues Clinic we are excited that we can have a microscope of this calibre which is a state-of-the-art microscope and a first of its kind in the country. We do some of the most complicated surgical operations in the country and we hope that the coming of this microscope is going to substantially improve the care of patients who seek surgical services.”

Prof Muguti said the microscope was available for use to all the surgeons who work at the hospital because they are granted a privilege of access to use the equipment in the specialist unit.

Dr Cameline Nyamarebvu president of the Zimbabwe Society of Otorhinolaryngologists (ZISOL) said the microscope was going to improve their work in terms of magnification when doing ear surgeries.