LUTH builds Colon Surgery Capacity of Doctors

Against the backdrop of ensuring proper treatment of bowel conditions in Nigeria, Lagos University Teaching Hospital has trained surgeons on the use of staplers to ensure better care for Nigeria’s teeming population.

Dr Olujimi Coker, Chief of Surgery, Lagoon Hospital, Lagos while speaking on the training done in collaboration with Ethicon Inc and West African College of Surgeons, said it had become necessary to build Nigerian surgeon’s skills in joining bowels together safely so as to reduce the number of people going around the country with colostomy bag.

A colostomy is formed during surgery to divert a section of the large intestine (colon) through an opening in the abdomen (tummy). A pouch or bag is placed over the opening to collect waste products that would usually pass through the colon and out of the body through the rectum and anus.

A colostomy usually needs to be formed when there is a problem with an area of the colon. Some of the most common reasons for forming a colostomy include bowel cancer, Crohn’s disease (a condition that causes inflammation of the digestive system) and injury to the colon.

Dr Coker, who remarked that the colostomy was better managed using a special stapler, said the surgeon’s skills were being improved on how to manage the problem through key hole surgery.

According to him, “These surgeons are being taught how to be able to join the

 bowel together safely so that we can reduce the number of people going around with a colostomy.

“People wearing colostomy are quite common in Nigeria either because of gunshot and road traffic injuries. But more commonly, cancers of the bowel are getting more and more common.”

The expert, who remarked that the surgical training is intended to be stepped down to other surgeons by those currently been trained, added that the participants’ skill was also going to be built on how best to pass down the training to others.