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. 2011:9:15.
doi: 10.4314/pamj.v9i1.71190. Epub 2011 Jun 6.

The development of cardiac surgery in West Africa--the case of Ghana

Frank Edwin  1 , Mark Tettey, Ernest Aniteye, Martin Tamatey, Lawrence Sereboe, Kow Entsua-Mensah, David Kotei, Kofi Baffoe-Gyan
Affiliations

The development of cardiac surgery in West Africa--the case of Ghana

Frank Edwin et al. Pan Afr Med J. 2011.

Abstract

West Africa is one of the poorest regions of the world. The sixteen nations listed by the United Nations in this sub-region have some of the lowest gross domestic products in the world. Health care infrastructure is deficient in most of these countries. Cardiac surgery, with its heavy financial outlay is unavailable in many West African countries. These facts notwithstanding, some West African countries have a proud history of open heart surgery not very well known even in African health care circles. Many African health care givers are under the erroneous impression that the cardiovascular surgical landscape of West Africa is blank. However, documented reports of open-heart surgery in Ghana dates as far back as 1964 when surface cooling was used by Ghanaian surgeons to close atrial septal defects. Ghana's National Cardiothoracic Center is still very active and is accredited by the West African College of Surgeons for the training of cardiothoracic surgeons. Reports from Nigeria indicate open-heart surgery taking place from 1974. Cote D'Ivoire had reported on its first 300 open-heart cases by 1983. Senegal reported open-heart surgery from 1995 and still runs an active center. Cameroon started out in 2009 with work done by an Italian group that ultimately aims to train indigenous surgeons to run the program. This review traces the development and current state of cardiothoracic surgery in West Africa with Ghana's National Cardiothoracic Center as the reference. It aims to dispel the notion that there are no major active cardiothoracic centers in the West African sub-region.

Keywords: Cardiac surgery; cardiopulmonary bypass; congenital heart disease; open-heart surgery; rheumatic heart disease.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Professor Charles Odamtten Easmon, pioneer of open-heart surgery in Ghana-(B) Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, founder of Ghana's National Cardiothoracic Center
Figure 2
Figure 2
The National Cardiothoracic Center (2009): 20th anniversary
Figure 3
Figure 3
Coronary artery bypass in progress with remote liquid crystal display (LCD) for education
Figure 4
Figure 4
The video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) service of the Ghana's National Cardiothoracic Center
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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