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15th pediatric surgery teaching seminar in Abidjan
A new seminar to strengthen training in pediatric surgery in West Africa.
At the end of April 2024, the 15th sub-regional teaching seminar on pediatric surgery was held in Côte d’Ivoire as part of the Diplôme d’Enseignement Supérieur en Chirurgie Pédiatrique (DES CP).
At the same time, a surgical mission from La Chaîne de l’Espoir took place at the Hôpital Mère-Enfant (HME) in Bingerville, to put the theoretical training provided into practice. Presentation.
What’s on the agenda for the new seminar?
From April 22 to 24, a new teaching seminar was held in Abidjan, attended by 33 surgical students from Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and Guinea Conakry.
The 15th seminar addressed two themes: :
- On the one hand, hypospadias is a malformation of the penis with a combination of several anomalies affecting the urethra, prepuce and sometimes the corpora cavernosa.
- On the other hand, uropathies, i.e. any disease affecting the urinary tract
It was the students’ wish that these topics be specifically addressed during the seminar. In fact, hypospadias requires slightly complex surgery, likely to give rise to a number of complications. What’s more, this pathology is rarely operated on in Africa, as the operation is both costly and unnecessary. Finally, its medical management does not require complex equipment or adapted sutures and dressings. In the case of uropathy, surgery is simpler and easier to reproduce. At present, very few cases are diagnosed prenatally in Africa, mainly due to a lack of suitable equipment.
8 children operated on for urological pathologies
Also from April 22 to 24, volunteers* from La Chaîne de l’Espoir’s medical network performed surgery at the Bingerville MCH.
During this mission, 8 children suffering from urological pathologies were operated on. These operations were broadcast live in an amphitheater. Seminar participants were therefore able to watch the operations from a distance.
In this way, the surgical mission made a significant contribution to the training of local healthcare teams led by Prof. Sylvia da Silva Anoma, Medical Director of the MCH, as well as students and coordinators of the D.E.S CP program.
Following the seminar, Pr Agnès Liard-Zmuda, Dr Anne Laffargue and Dr Alain Diguet took part in the 1st congress of pediatric surgery organized by the Société Ivoirienne de Chirurgie Pédiatrique (SICP). The event, which took place from April 25 to 26 at Grand Bassam Hospital, was dedicated to surgery for congenital pathologies.
Finally, since 2014, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has been contributing its expertise in teaching pediatric surgery at these seminars organized with Universities in 6 West African countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Benin, Cotonou, Togo, Burkina Faso). They bring together teachers and medical students from these 6 countries, as well as from Guinea Conakry. These seminars are also part of the curriculum for the DES CP diploma recognized by the Conseil Africain et Malgache pour l’Enseignement Supérieur (CAMES).
*Dr Agnès Liard-Zmuda (Rouen University Hospital), Dr Delphine Demede (Lyon University Hospital), Dr Anne Laffargue (Lille University Hospital), Dr Alain Diguet (Rouen University Hospital)
