CIEGO DE AVILA. Cuban medicine took a step forward with the successful performance of a minimal invasive esophagus operation on a young man in the Antonio Luaces Iraola training hospital of Ciego de Avila, in the central region of Cuba.
This is the first time the surgical technique has been used to fix a benign disorder in the esophagus in this province, said Felipe Jorge Aragón, head of surgery of the Luaces Iraola hospital.
He explained that the patient, Lisvanis Álvarez Feria, 26, suffered from achalasia, a disease that is produced by a failure of the esophagus to relax which blocks the passage of food into the stomach and could lead to malnutrition and lung complications.
A similar operation would cost around 10,000 US dollars in other countries, while in Cuba is totally free for patients in spite of the economic limitations brought on by the US blockade of the island.
The procedure, also referred to as minimal access surgery, was first used in Ciego de Avila in 2004 and it is applied in other specialties, in particular in orthopedics with very good results on more than 200 patients.
It consists of small incisions through which the surgeon passes a telescope with video camera that provides magnified images of the area to be operated on, thus the doctor views the surgery on a TV monitor.
The procedure allows faster recovery of the patient, reduces his time in the hospital and the risks of bleeding or infections, said Dr. Aragon.
(Ciego de Ávila: primera operación de esófago por artroscopia)
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