Dr. Joseph Akinde, a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, has stated that a woman’s health must be in excellent condition prior to having fibroid surgery.
The gynecologist warned that doing fibroid surgery on women whose health isn’t at its best could result in deadly complications and advised surgeons performing surgical procedures on women to always prioritize protecting their lives.
Akinde, the medical director of Living Spring Hospital and Maternity in Ejigbo, urged women to learn about such procedures in an interview with PUNCH HealthWise so that no doctor would take advantage of them.
Speaking with Healthline’s correspondent, he said, “You have to put the woman in an optimal state. You must make sure that she is in the optimal state for the surgery.
“One of the things that happen with fibroid is that women tend to bleed a lot when they have fibroid surgery, that tends to decrease their blood level so you don’t want to subject a woman to surgery unless her blood level is optimal.
“One thing you must do before you take a patient for fibroid surgery is to make sure that her blood is optimal.
“You want to make sure she doesn’t have other comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes, and all that.
“If she has all these other diseases, you have to make sure they are well taken care of and she is stable before you take her to the theatre.”
Continuing, he explained, “When you do fibroid surgery, you are either removing the womb or the fibroid alone.
“One of the complications that may arise after the surgery could be bleeding and that may make her unable to breathe well and unless you go in and arrest the bleeding you may end up losing her.
“These are some of the things that may make a patient who goes for surgery, if her blood level is too low, she may not be able to pass through the stress of the surgery, and at the end of the day she may not come out of the surgery hale and hearty.”
He also clarified that despite the presence of non-invasive fibroid treatments for fibroid like the use of High-intensity Focused Ultrasound that uses a laser to melt the fibroid, not all fibroid cases qualify for this.
According to him, this is because the type of fibroids found in African women are usually so massive that the chances of using lasers for them are minimal.
He explained that lasers are applicable when the fibroids are very small and where they are not many.
He added that although there are non-invasive fibroid treatments available, such as the use of high-intensity focused ultrasound, which melts the fibroid with a laser, not all fibroid cases are candidates for this.
He claims that this is the case because the type of fibroids that are typically found in African women are so large that there is little chance that they can be treated with lasers.
According to him, lasers can be used in situations where the fibroids are few and very small.
