More Orthopaedic Surgeons Needed - Prof Korsah

Accra, Aug. 20, -The low number of trained orthopaedic surgeons in the country is affecting the smooth treatment of spinal and other anatomical disorders, Professor Kwaku Korsah, a former orthopaedic surgeon at the Ghana Medical School, said last night. Presiding on the second day of a five-day seminar on Current Concepts and Management of Diseases of the Spine and Spinal Cord in Accra, he said since orthopaedic surgery began at the Korle bu Teaching Hospital in 1974 he has not trained more than four specialists in that field of medicine. The seminar, which is to mark the fifth anniversary of the Trust Hospital, is being organised by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust and the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York, with general and specialist medical practitioners and the general public in attendance. Prof. Korsah said the few orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons available are, at the moment, more occupied with accident cases and so little attention is paid to spinal disorders arising from birth. According to him, the situation has been compounded by the lack of Harrington rods, commonly used in the correcting spinal disorders. Prof. Korsah said the gravity of the situation has not been felt largely because most people whose relatives have spinal deformities do not know that these can be corrected and, therefore, confine them in their homes. "The rods are not enough and even if everybody came, we would have a problem attending to all of them",he added. Prof. Korsah hoped the seminar would increase public awareness that spinal deformities can be cured, adding that "any spine can be corrected with what we have". Dr Oheneba Boachie-Adjei,Chief of Scoliosis Services at the HSS who is a resource person at the seminar, said scoliosis, which is a side-to-side curvature of the spine, was discovered more than two thousand years ago and has a constant prevalence world-wide. He said different corrective techniques, including casts and braces have been used while more surgical innovations to treat the problem are evolving. Dr Boachie-Adjei said early intervention with braces can prevent severe consequences in adulthood by the deformity, which according to him, is more common in female children than in males.