Arthroscopic surgery equipment donated to K.H.M.H
Whether you’re a weekend warrior or your nine to five job requires lots of strenuous activity, pain in the joints might be something you’ve learnt to live with. But for those who would like relief, you’ll be excited to know that a new orthopedic procedure is being launched in Belize. At the invitation of Dr. Francis Smith, an orthopedic surgeon at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, a doctor and nurse from St. Francis hospital in Wilmington, Delaware, are in Belize to perform arthroscopic surgery. Arthroscopy involves the use of a minute camera to explore the inside of a joint through very small incisions. Dr. Gelman, one of the visiting specialists, says while the equipment used might seem intimidating, for him, it’s gotten to be very routine.
Dr. Andrew Gelman, Orthopedic Surgeon
“So for me, I don’t think it’s any different than brushing my teeth. It’s done on a routine basis in the States and now in the near future in Belize it will become a routine, commonly performed very safe procedure with very predicable outcomes.”
Dave Talbot, Orthopedic Specialty Nurse
“With this type of system it’s a four millimeter scope so our stab wound as we call it is just a little tiny nick. Most of the time, we’ll make two of them, one on either side of the knee. Through this, I will turn the unit on, and if you could just take a look at how this magnifies inside, if you could imagine that being inside of a knee, we would have a very good visualization of about ninety-five percent of the knee itself. All the way in the back, under the patella, virtually the whole knee gets examined with this scope.”
Dr. Andrew Gelman
“We can make an accurate diagnosis of the inside anatomy and then using other surgical microscopic instrumentation, we can insert the instruments into the knee. We can repair, we can remove and we can sometimes reconstruct internal structural abnormalities on an outpatient basis.
Short-term benefits are, it is number one, a very excellent diagnostic tool, it rapidly can appreciate internal injury, correct that problem, as I mentioned on an outpatient basis. The individual can frequently return to a vigorous lifestyle usually sportswise, perhaps within a few weeks. There’s no casting involved, perhaps a day or two of crutches, early moving around and clearly, will improve the quality of life.”
Dr. Francis Smith, Orthopedic Surgeon
“We see public patients at clinics, at the Karl Heusner and patients that qualify would get it through the normal route.”
Since Monday, six Belizeans have gone “under the camera” to address problems with the cartilage, ligament and tendons in their knees. The joints most often scoped are the knee and shoulder but the procedure can be done on any other joint, like ankles and hips. The doctors will leave Belize before the week’s end but local doctors like Francis Smith are being trained to do the procedure. Three identical units of the equipment used in Arthroscopy have been donated to the K.H.M.H., a donation estimated at around five hundred thousand dollars. Dr. Smith calls the equipment a significant upgrade to the hospital’s orthopedic service.
