GWERU Provincial has broke the record for being the first provincial hospital in Zimbabwe to successfully perform a total hip replacement surgery.
By Patricia Mashiri
Their first patient was an eighty-two old female patient. The surgery was performed by Brian Paketh, an Orthopaedic surgeon and his team under the logistic support from Medical Superintendent Dr Fabian Mashingaidze. Mr Brian Paketh, head of the surgery team said the operation went on well as the patient didn’t have any complications and the patient was recovering well.
The initial operation was a success and the patient didn’t have any complication and the patient is recovering well and mobilizing. We have a lot of patients with arthritis and it is fit to do it at a provincial hospital so that we don’t refer them to central hospitals,” Paketh said.
Following the successful surgery, Gweru provincial hospital is scheduling twelve more operations.
“So far the results are promising and this year alone, we are scheduling to do another twelve, we can’t do that at once, because of the preparations and patient management that are done, and also resources required for the operation,”Paketh said.
According to Mr Paketh, the reason for hip replacement is that the bones will be grinding each other, a condition called osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis is a type of arthritis caused when tissues at the end of bones wears down. It occurs gradually and worsens over time.
