GPHC conducted 748 emergency surgeries in 2023

Guyana’s premier healthcare institution – the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) Department of Orthopedics recorded massive successes in 2023 as surgeons in that department conducted a total of 748 emergency surgeries for the year.

Speaking at the institution’s year-end press conference, the Head of the Surgery Department, Dr David Samaroo informed media operatives that 1,602 surgeries were conducted; of that, over 700 were emergency in nature.

The department has also conducted advanced surgeries including surgeries on the pelvis to the acetabulum.

“In orthopaedics, many times when you consider very difficult surgeries, those around the pelvic area are sometimes the most difficult type. And it was by no fluke that we achieved doing these surgeries, it was actually by design,” Dr Samaroo disclosed.

He highlighted that the hospital acquired a new CT scan machine that allowed surgeons to study the fractures more precisely and understand the characteristics of these fractures.

“The surgeons were able to train themselves and gear themselves to treat these complex problems,” he said.

Dr Samaroo further pointed out that the department was able to successfully conduct complex spine surgery where surgeons were able to approach the spine both anteriorly and posteriorly. Several sports medicine surgeries including anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction were also conducted by the department.

Joint replacement surgeries were also conducted through a collaboration with Operation Walk, with 62 joint replacement surgeries conducted.

“For our own statistics, our surgeons were able to achieve 64 surgeries over the year and this is because, while we are doing joint replacement surgeries, our department also does several other fractures and orthopaedic pathologies,” he pointed out.

The GPHC is partnering with Hero Mission to conduct complex orthopaedic surgery for paediatric patients and eight surgeries were conducted on this group of patients.

“Also, in October, we partnered with persons from the World Paediatric Project and we did seven scoliosis surgery. This is quite a phenomenal achievement because for the past 25 years, we have not done any scoliosis surgery here at GPHC and this is because of one, skill and two, because at the time in the past, lack of some instrumentation,” he stated. Meanwhile, the Surgical Outpatient Clinic saw 11,906 patients; 2550 were new patients and old patients while there were 9,356 revisits.