The Caribbean College of Surgeons (CCOS) has successfully trained four specialist surgeons attached to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) Department of Surgery, to perform thyroidectomy procedures.
According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) release, this training was part of a one-day workshop hosted by the CCOS, a day before the start of their 17th Annual scientific conference which ran from June 20 to 22 in Guyana. The event took place at the Marriott Hotel and out of its membership of over 250 surgeons, more than 150 attended, making this the largest convention ever held.
A team of visiting surgeons performed the first operation while the local team conducted the other three procedures under the supervision of the visiting team of surgeons.
A thyroidectomy is a surgical procedure to remove all or part of the thyroid gland and is used to treat diseases of the thyroid gland, including thyroid cancer. The thyroid gland regulates metabolism by secreting hormones. When diseases affect the thyroid, its size or activity may become abnormal.
Surgery Consultant, Dr Shailendra Rajkumar explained, “This workshop was the first of its kind where they actually removed thyroid glands from persons who had diseased thyroids with a suture-less technique. It is the first time it has ever been done here [in Guyana] and we managed to operate on four patients without any complications, to the benefit of the entire department of surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital.”
Dr Cheetanand Mahadeo, Consultant and General Thoracic Surgeon at GPHC – one of the four doctors who were formally trained to conduct the thyroidectomy procedure – noted that this new technique would be of significant benefit to the patients. “The reason why we never did it [thyroidectomy] was because we could never afford the device prior. So, now, we are reducing operating time by almost one-third. A surgery [that] would normally last one and a half hours, could be done in just under an hour with the same outcome, so the patients stay less time asleep, and they go home earlier.”
This is just one of many new developments resulting from CCOS conferences which were recently held. At these meetings or educational symposiums as members of the college prefer to call them, Caribbean surgeons share information regarding new procedures as well as new developments to methods that were practised for many years.
Vice President, of the CCOS, Professor Shamir Cawich explained “This educational symposium covers a wide range of topics in surgery, and it ranges from cutting edge techniques that are now being discovered like single incision laparoscopy all the way to transplantation, so it covers a very wide range of surgical specialities.”
