How DELSUTH Tackles Kidney Disease

BY SAM AKADORO
DETERMINED and focused to vindicate the mission and vision of the founders of the Delta State Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH) Oghara, Delta State, the management of the hospital has continued to take on new challenges in the medical profession. Less than a year ago when the hospital carried out its first sophisticated lapascropic surgery, it has again come up with the first vascular access medication for patients of kidney ailment.
Speaking on the determination of the teaching hospital to manage these health challenges, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr. Leslie Akporiaye enthused, “we have organized these operations as we have organized the new techniques here by bringing professionals from overseas who have the skills to provide the essential service for the patients and also teach the doctors here how to carry out the operation. In this particular instance, it is to prepare the patient who has a kidney failure and is having dialysis for preparation for kidney transplantation.’’
The Chief Medical Director also informed that the expert who performed the operation is from Dallas in the United States of America (USA), adding that the more people who are allowed to acquire the skill, the better prepared the hospital. He stated that this was the first vascular access operation in the hospital but that there were six patients waiting on queue who are looking for kidney donors.
On the challenges of demand for excellent performance by the hospital, Akporiaye state, “ The government is already committed to developing certain areas, kidney transplantation dialysis is one of them, radiology is another neonatology also another and Urology being the fifth aspect of the medical programme in the hospital that the Delta State Government is intervening for best performance.” Continuing, Akporiaye informed that apart from the sophisticated equipment that the government has procured and waiting to be delivered, the government has done well.
Akporiaye stated that the lasting legacies of His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan is the self-sustaining of the hospital, human capital and infrastructural development which accurately fits into the 3 point Agenda of Uduaghan’s administration. The skill centre of the hospital can incorporate this vascular access operation and other specific training programmes. The skill centre is taking off in the middle of September when the hospital shall run the first course of the centre. The skill acquisition centre according to Akporiaye would be made available to the state and other interested professionals across the country.
Dr. Bemigho Ayo Odoumeta is a Consultant Nephrologist. In an interview with journalists, he stated that as a nephrologist, he takes care of patients with chronic kidney disease, adding that a lot is involved like in conservative management where you have to take care of the patients hypertension, blood sugar, diabetes form of infection so that the kidney disease won’t progress faster. He informed that when the patient has end stage kidney disease, he needs dialyses which are of different types. What they do at the teaching hospital is haemodialysis and in doing this dialysis, there are different vascular accesses that can be used. He said they were doing the permanent access involving the AV fistula creation where you connect the arteries to the vein which would be functioning like an artery for an easy dialysis. He also informed that they were doing the gold standard of the vascular access for dialysis patient, simply because it is permanent, there is reduced morbidity and mortality in the patient and the risk of infection and complication is minimal. What most centres crave for is to have AV fistula creation whereby when you want to do a transplant for the patient, it becomes easier.
Odoumeta pointed out that the definitive treatment for a chronic kidney patient is kidney transplant and that is their ultimate goal. Once a patient has an end stage kidney disease, what they look for is to have a kidney transplant to have a new kidney.
He said that having AV fistula creation which they have already started in the hospital is a step toward kidney transplantation which means that the hospital is getting closer to the transplantation operation. He noted that with the above scenario and by God’s grace, they would soon have the kidney transplant operation in the hospital.
Odoumeta informed that at the Nigerian Transplantation Association meeting in Lagos, they adopted the Istanbul Declaration on kidney transplantation and organ donation.
He said they encouraged first degree relatives, spouse or very close friends to donate kidneys and try to discourage organ trafficking. People buy kidneys from sources they do not know and the complications from such purchases can be more. He noted that people are getting aware that dialysis process is on in the hospital adding that there are dialyses for all cadres of patients like infectious disease, HIV, Hepatitis B and C.
He said the Delta State Government and the management of the hospital have to be appreciated for their concern for the overall development of the hospital.
Sam Akadoro, a journalist writes from Sapele.