The Lagos State University Hospital, LASUTH, has successfully performed a non-surgical repair of a hole in a heart defect.
The procedure, known in medical parlance as ventricular septal defect closure, was performed by specialists in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory.
Announcing this feat in a series of tweets on its @LASUTHikeja Twitter page, the health agency said it was the first public tertiary healthcare facility of its kind in Nigeria. Dr. Olwase Oladimeji, an interventional cardiologist at the hospital, said with this development, “patients now have options for open heart surgery”.
The tweets read as follows: “As a public tertiary health institution, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) never rests on its oars, in its provision of quality healthcare solutions to the residents of Lagos State, Nigeria. and the world in general.
“On Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at the hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory, experts performed a first such procedure called ventricular septal defect (VSD) closure, at a tertiary healthcare facility.
“According to Dr. Oluwaseye Oladimeji, Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at LASUTH, described the procedure as being performed on patients born with a hole in the heart. He revealed there are two ways to deal with holes in the heart.
One is to perform open-heart surgery, while the other method is non-surgical closure.
“Dr. Oladimeji defined VSD as a type of cardiac procedure that closes a hole between the left and right ventricles of the heart.
He said this could be done without an incision in the chest wall and the defect could be closed with a disc-shaped device.
The consultant cardiologist said, “Patients who have had this procedure can be discharged two hours after VSD closure and can be on their way home.”
“It is noteworthy that various types of procedures have been performed at LASUTH’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory.
So far, over 120 procedures have been successfully performed since the launch of this lab in the second quarter of 2022.
“The efforts of the current dedicated management and staff of the hospital, led by the unwavering and efficient Director of Medicine, Prof. Adetokunbo O. Fabamwo, have resulted in continuous improvement in the delivery of excellent health services at LASUTH.”
Vanguard gathered that cardiac catheterization takes about three hours and complications are rare, although most patients can leave the hospital the day after the procedure.
A hole in the heart is a hole between the upper chambers (atria) of the heart, hence it is known as Atrial Septal Defect, ASD.
The hole increases the amount of blood flowing through the lungs.
The condition is one of the congenital heart defects (present at birth) and occurs when one of the many openings in the wall that divides the upper chambers of the baby’s heart fails to close as it continues to grow during pregnancy.
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