Kiambu Level 5 Hospital successfully conducts 82 laparoscopy surgeries

Kiambu Level 5 Hospital is setting the pace as far as conducting successful gasless laparoscopy surgeries in the country is concerned.

According to Dr Patrick Muchunu, a surgeon at Kiambu Level Five Hospital, they have conducted 82 successful surgeries and are anticipating 12 cases to be conducted this month.

He spoke while taking fellow doctors drawn from 26 counties through a medical camp to learn about Laparoscopy surgery, 

“The hospital introduced laparoscopy surgery last year and we have conducted 82 surgeries,” he said.

Muchunu said that the surgery is safe and takes a patient a short period of stay in the hospital.

Laparoscopy is a type of keyhole surgery used to diagnose and treat conditions. It allows a surgeon to use only small cuts and a camera for procedures inside the tummy or pelvis.

Chairman of the Operating Theatre Practitioners Association of Kenya (OTPAK) Pankaj Jani oversaw the implementation of the laparoscopy surgery program in Kiambu Hospital.

He said that they are trying to improve services by ensuring the implementation of minimally invasive surgery.

"Kiambu has been the leading hospital which has done the highest number of operations," Jani said.

He said 26 counties have been incorporated to learn about laparoscopy surgery to increase the number of hospitals in Kenya doing laparoscopy.

"We are trying to improve laparoscopy services and expand the horizon by introducing pediatric laparoscopy surgery, urology laparoscopy surgery, in addition to general surgery and Oesophago Gastro duodenoscopy (OGD) surgery which is already established in Kiambu," he said.

He said that the world has ventured into minimally invasive surgery in a big way and that most abdominal operations are done through laparoscopy surgery.

In Kenya, gasless laparoscopy surgery is being done in 13 hospitals.

"The commonest operations that are done by laparoscopy are appendectomy, hernia and lots of other surgeries where you have to make a diagnosis to take a biopsy. In gynaecology, most surgeries are done via laparoscopy," he said.

County executive committee member for health Elias Maina said that Kiambu Hospital is well equipped to conduct laparoscopy surgery.

"With the new technology, a patient only gets to have two incisions done where a camera is introduced as he or she is being operated on," Maina said.

He said that the surgery shortens the stay of the patient in the hospital and a patient goes back to their duties in less than a week.

"At the moment, the machines are only at Kiambu level 5 hospital and shortly we are going to equip all other hospitals in the county and also scale down to all level four hospitals," he said.

He said that the health department has introduced a hospital information management system in all the county hospitals to ensure hospital services are computerized such that when a patient checks into the hospital the data is entered into the computer.

"We can monitor the patients even in the next point of delivery in all stages. All this is going to be computerized and digitized. We are going paperless and it will be very easy for healthcare workers and also for the patients as far as service delivery is concerned," he said