Reprieve appears to be in sight for the obese in Nigeria, as the Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano, announced a breakthrough in the conduct of obesity surgery.
The hospital claimed it has successfully conducted an obesity operation on a 60-year-old patient, thus becoming the first tertiary hospital in the country to have achieved the feat.
Hauwa Muhammed, the hospital’s Assistant Director Information, said in a statement that the operation was carried out on the patient who weighed 156 kilogrammes. She did not reveal the identity of the patient.
A Consultant Surgeon in the Department of Surgery, Dr Usman Bello, was quoted by Ms Muhammed as saying the patient presented multiple health issues which included hypertension, diabetes and ischemic heart disease.
Bello, according to the statement, further said with the successful conduct of the surgery, the patient’s weight would return to normal gradually without using sliming tablets, urging the obese to undergo the surgery at the hospital to live healthily.
Part of the statement reads: “Upon evaluation, a team of doctors from four specialties resolved that the patient needed to undergo laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy to have a relief on his medical condition. The patient lost 35kg of his weight at the end of the surgery and 65kg at the point of discharge from the hospital”.
