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Iheanyi Chukwudi
Experts in neurosurgery have called on both Federal and State governments to make the treatment of Hydrocephalus compulsory and free for all Nigerian children.
The experts who participated in the 1st Enugu Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy + Choroid Plexus Coagulation (ETV/CPC) collaboration between the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) and NeuroKids, where no fewer than 17 children with Hydrocephalus had successful endoscopic neurosurgeries, noted that the cost of treatment of the said health challenge was beyond the reach of the poor masses.
The beneficiaries of the endoscopic neurosurgery who are between the ages of four months and eight years are said to be recuperating effectively after the surgery.
UNTH and the experts in neurosurgery further said that governments’ involvement in the treatment of Hydrocephalus was the only way the health condition would be tackled in Nigeria.
The request to the governments came just as the UNTH broke another new ground through collaboration with United States of America (USA)-based NeuroKids Foundation on new method of treating children with Hydrocephalus.
Children with Hydrocephalus have excessive brain fluids that make them experience abnormal growth in parts of their body. It could also be described as a neurological disorder caused by an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles (cavities) within the brain.
Experts said excess fluid could cause ventricles to widen and put harmful pressure on brain tissues in children. In the process, enlarges their brain and head.
UNTH Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr. Obinna Onodugo, who expressed happiness over the partnership and the adaptation of the Endoscopic surgery (Dr. Warf Procedure) by the Neurosurgery Department of the hospital, said it had boosted the efforts of the institution in breaking new grounds.
Onodugo commended the government for their efforts through the institution and urged it to see the need to support the hospital by subsidizing the cost of the surgery for the children or take it over entire for the sake of poor masses.
A Consultant Neurosurgeon and Project Director of NeuroKids-UNTH Collaboration, Prof. Enoch Uche while requesting government to make the treatment of Hydrocephalus free, noted that NeuroKids donated Neuroendoscopes and many other equipment worth over $90,000 to make the project succeed.
According to him, “UNTH working with NeuroKids is making this surgery and this treatment available in UNTH and surgeries are subsidized by the management of UNTH while NeuroKids has provided both the facilities. What you have here, these endoscope systems worth tens of millions of naira and NeuroKids has provided it free of charge, not only that, NeuroKids has mobilized a team to come and support us as we do this surgery.
That team is led by Dr. Justin Onen, a Neurosurgeon who has a lot of experience in doing these surgeries at Mulago Hospital, Uganda, there is also Prof. Femi Bankole from Lagos who is also part of the team.
“We want to implore the government to come to the aid of patients with Hydrocephalus. Because most of them are born by poor families, they are not usually brought for treatment, that’s why you are seeing a five-year-old being brought for treatment for the first time.
“If government had made the treatment of Hydrocephalus compulsory and free for all Nigerian children, that will be acceptable and a very positive way of saying that we want our children to have the best form of health.
“We want the government to partner with UNTH to provide other facilities that are required to make pediatric neurosurgery come to the standard that is acceptable in most of the developed world so that our children would not have to be taken out of Nigeria for treatment and so that the poor masses with this
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