Shahid Gangalal National Heart Center and Manmohan Cardiothoracic, Vascular and Transplant Center (MCVTC) at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will be starting Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VAST) in the coming year.[break]
Dr Bhagwan Koirala said the centers would be doing more complex surgeries overall focusing on minimally-invasive surgery that uses very small incisions. MCVTC will build a Modular Operation Theater in the coming year. “The Modular Operation Theater would be of a higher standard with more attention to sterility and prevention of infection,” Dr Koirala said.
Cancer patients can also heave a sigh of relief as the BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Bharatpur, Chitwan, which will start Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). IMRT is a computer-controlled advanced mode of high-precision radiotherapy that delivers radiation precisely to the malignant tumor or specific areas within the tumor. “IMRT focuses on the cancerous cells, thereby preventing vital organs from the radiation during radiotherapy,” oncologist Dr Sudip Shrestha said.
Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology (TIO) will start providing laser surgery to correct long-sightedness and shortsightedness in two months. “We’ll install state of the art technology and make it the best facility for laser surgery in the region,” Medical Director at the TIO Dr Sanduk Ruit claimed. He added that a doctor has already been sent to London for the requisite training, and persons with defects of up to -9 to +8 can get their eyesight corrected with laser surgery at TIO.
Neurosurgeons are preparing to tackle stroke attack in brain, as in heart attack, which needs immediate treatment.
“There are some technological limitations in our country which we’re going to overcome this year. We’ll start treatment for acute brain attack which should be started within three hours of the attack,” Dr Basanta Panta said.
“We need to do a lot of preparation educating the public and doctors, bring in special ambulance, install appropriate imaging system, and above all, train our team,” Dr Panta added.
Neurosurgeons are also planning to start putting pacemaker in the brain which is useful in Parkinsonism, tremor and other kinds of movement disorders.
Kidney patients also can get various sophisticated tests like immunofluoroscence staining and plasmapheresis done in Nepal.
“We’re currently sending the samples to India for these tests,” nephrologist at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) Dr Divya Singh said. Dr Singh said plasmapheresis, which uses purification of antibodies, can also be used in treatment of problems related to immune system and neurology.
The Norvic International Hospital is installing cameras, which can be operated and viewed through the Internet, so that doctors can monitor the patients even from their homes. The hospital will also use tele-medicine technology to monitor and treat patients outside Kathmandu.
Likewise, the government has established a sophisticated laboratory where virus isolation tests can be carried out to detect influenza virus in the country. Currently, samples have to be sent to Bangkok or the United Kingdom for confirmation, and the reports usually take more than two weeks to arrive. But the new laboratory can do so within 48 hours.
The modern trauma center at Bir Hospital, which should have come into use by the end of 2008, finally looks set to start functioning sometime in 2011. With the start of the center, hundreds of trauma deaths in the country can be prevented every year. The 17,914 square-meter center has 200 beds, five operation theaters, a library, a conference hall, separate rest and recreation rooms for doctors, nurses and paramedics, and three cafeterias.
It will provide complex, multidisciplinary treatment, including neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery in order to give victims of road accidents, burns, falls, assaults and other sudden musculoskeletal injuries the best possible chance of survival and recovery.
Similarly, Nepal Ambulance Service (NAS) will start ambulance service with trained emergency medical staff onboard in early 2011 to ensure that patients get emergency care while being taken to the hospital and don’t die before reaching the respective hospitals.
NAS will station its five ambulances at Sita Paila, Satdobato, Koteshwar, Narayan Gopal Chowk, and Kamal Pokhari in the initial phase of the operation. An NAS ambulance will consist of a stretcher trolley, folding wheelchair, spine board with head mobilizer, scoop stretcher, cervical collar, suction pump, and oxygen cylinder, among other standby necessities. It will charge Rs 500 for transportation, apart from other medicine charges as incurred.
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