Online Reporter
Wallace Ruzvidzo
A TEAM of doctors at the Sally Mugabe Children’s Hospital successfully removed a four-kilogramme Wilms tumour from a four-year-old girl in yet another feat that highlights the growing capabilities of Zimbabwe’s public healthcare system in handling complex paediatric surgeries.
The intricate operation, which lasted nearly four hours, was performed by a team of local paediatric and neonatal surgeons.
Wilms tumour — also known as nephroblastoma — is a rare form of kidney cancer that mainly affects children between the ages of two and five. It usually develops in one kidney but can, in rare cases, occur in both.
Dr Kudzayi Munanzvi, one of the paediatric surgeons who led the procedure, said the surgery involved removing the affected kidney while navigating dangerously close to major blood vessels in the abdomen.
“The operation was a left-sided nephrectomy for Wilms tumour, which, in simple terms, means removal of the left kidney because it had cancer,” she said.
“The large blood vessels — the aorta and inferior vena cava — were dangerously associated with the tumour, so coordination between the surgical, anaesthetic and nursing teams at every step was vital. We had to work in perfect sync; otherwise, the patient could have died on the table.”
Dr Munanzvi said local surgeons perform two to three similar cancer-related operations on children every week, mainly involving abdominal tumours.
“Local doctors perform many similar operations but rarely get time to publicise their work,” she said.
“Our hospital is a referral centre with highly trained experts, including superspecialists who have undergone advanced training both in the region and beyond.”
She added that success of such procedures reflects the continued improvement in Zimbabwe’s public health sector, supported by a network of partners.
“The work that we do is successful not just because of the healthcare workers but also because of the partners who work with us.
“For example, KidsOR is an organisation that equipped two of our theatres.
“We have other partners who assist the paediatric theatre through the Harare Hospital Children’s Trust.
“The ordinary man on the street is also our partner if they are a blood donor — that donated blood has saved the lives of many children.”
The patient’s mother expressed relief after months of distress.
“Her stomach had grown so much that it was equivalent to a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy,” she said.
“Her condition had deteriorated so much and the doctors were even saying the tumour was also draining her blood.”
The successful operation at the Sally Mugabe Children’s Hospital comes just weeks after a team of local neurosurgeons at the Chitungwiza Central Hospital successfully removed a brain tumour from an 11-year-old girl, the first such procedure at the institution.
That surgery, led by consultant neurosurgeon Dr Brighton Valentine Nyamapfene, was hailed as a historic milestone for the hospital’s neurosurgery department, established only two years ago.
Until recently, highly specialised operations such as brain tumour removals were almost exclusively performed at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, or required patients to seek treatment outside the country, often in South Africa or India, at great financial cost.
Experts say these recent successes demonstrate the growing capacity of Zimbabwe’s public hospitals to perform complex, life-saving procedures locally.
At Parirenyatwa, for example, open-heart surgeries resumed in June last year after a five-year hiatus, with dozens of successful operations since the resumption.
