Doctors Conduct First Awake Brain Surgery In Ghana At Ridge Hospital: Full Details Emerge

• A group of health workers has done the first awake brain surgery in Ghana at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital
• The surgery, which was done on a police officer, took eight hours with several specialists in the theatre to ensure all went well
• The patient who was operated on was engaged through conversations, drumming, singing, and other activities to stimulate his brain when needed

A team of health workers has conducted the first awake brain surgery in Ghana at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, formerly Ridge Hospital.

The surgery was done on a police officer called Sergeant Sylvester Aboagye. According to a consultant neurosurgeon, Prof Samuel Kaba, the patient had a brain tumour, and they could not risk operating on him while he was asleep.

How Sylvester got to know he had a tumour

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The 39-year-old police officer initially went to a hospital in Kumasi, complaining of personality challenges, memory issues, and difficulty in communication. He was referred to a psychiatric hospital.

However, Sylvester started hallucinating, having bad dreams, and seeing things differently because of his condition.

“Instead of seeing you as a human being, he might see you as a different object. He was taken to the hospital in Kumasi, they examined him and he was transferred for further treatment. People thought it was a psychiatric problem, so he was sent to the psychiatric hospital where he was given medicine,” Prof Kaba explained in a TV3 report.

After a while, he was referred to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, where the needed test and scans were done.

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“When we saw him, a necessary test was done, and we detected that he had a brain tumour. The tumuor is located in the area that helps us to be able to visualize things and position ourselves and be able to have a good memory, good thinking, and regulate hallucination. We realised that operating on him, we will need him awake because if we attempt operating on him asleep completely, we might be removing the tumour, but he will come out with a deficit.”

Awake brain surgery is the kind of surgery in which the patient is awake and engaged while the operation is ongoing to avoid brain damage. The surgery was done on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

While the surgery was ongoing, Sergeant Aboagye was engaged by a clinical psychologist and a neurophysiologist. The clinical psychologist shows him images he is expected to identify and lets him do other activities like playing the mouth organ, singing, or drumming. The neurophysiologist monitors his reaction to all the activities allowing the surgeons to remove as much of the tumour as possible while preserving the core brain functions.

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After eight hours, the surgery was done, and the police officer was wheeled to a ward for recovery.

First cardiac catheterisation surgery performed in Ghana at UGMC

In a previous story, YEN.com.gh reported that at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), Professor Nana Akyaa Yao, Ghana's sole pediatric cardiologist, carried out the nation's first cardiac catheterization procedure.

The Ghanaian Cardiac Pediatrician Specialist, Prof Yao, carried out the procedure with help from Global Heart Care.

A thin, flexible tube (catheter) is inserted into a blood vessel and guided to the heart during a cardiac catheterization procedure to diagnose or treat certain heart conditions, such as blocked arteries or irregular heartbeats.

Source: YEN.com.gh