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Frank Edwin, Frimpong-Boateng Kwabena. Open-heart surgery and coronary artery bypass grafting in Western Africa. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2011;9:3 Key words: Open-heart surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, Africa Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/9/3/full Received: 10/05/2011 - Accepted: 10/05/2011 - Published: 11/05/2011 © Frank Edwin et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Open-heart surgery and coronary artery bypass grafting in Western Africa
Frank Edwin1,2,&, Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng1
1National Cardiothoracic Center, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, PO Box KB 846, Accra, Ghana, 2Walter Sisulu Pediatric Cardiac Center, Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa
&Corresponding author
Frank Edwin, National Cardiothoracic Center, P O Box KB 591, Korle Bu, Accra-Ghana. Phone: +233302662388; Fax: +233302667196, Accra, Ghana
We read with concern the paper of Budzee and colleagues in a recent issue of the Pan African Medical Journal. We wish to draw the attention of the authors and the readership of the journal to gross inaccuracies in the report. The first open-heart surgery in Nigeria is reported to have taken place on 1st February 1974 at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) in Enugu. Publications from the group in Abidjan indicate the performance of the first 300 cases of open-heart surgery by 1983, the figure increasing to 850 by 1987. Senegal reportedly began performing open-heart surgery in 1995 and is currently a reference point for open cardiac procedures for francophone West Africa. The Ghanaian open-heart experience began in 1964 when surface cooling was used to achieve hypothermia for the successful closure of an atrial septal defect. However, it was not until 1989 that Ghana's National Cardiothoracic Center (NCTC) was established. The NCTC performs regular open-cardiac procedures covering almost the entire spectrum of cardiothoracic procedures including video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). The NCTC is equipped with modern cardiovascular/thoracic facilities and has been accredited by the West African College of Surgeons as a center of excellence for the training of cardiothoracic surgeons and has performed creditably in this regard. It is emphasized that open-heart surgery has been practiced in West Africa for decades and continues to be practiced with excellence matching international standards at Ghana?s National Cardiothoracic Center.
