Madagascar Open Heart: a major medical first in Antananarivo

This major step forward will take place on May 21 at the Centre Hospitalier de Soavinandriana (CENHOSOA), where La Chaîne de l’Espoir has built and equipped a heart surgery unit to the highest standards, so that children with heart defects can be operated on. Until now, only closed-heart operations were possible and performed in Madagascar, and the only alternative for children with heart defects requiring open-heart surgery was a transfer to La Réunion or mainland France.

A French medical team, led by Dr Pierre Maminirina, a Franco-Malagasy thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon based at Nantes University Hospital, will be on hand for these 1st operations. He will be on site from Thursday May 16, while the rest of the team, mainly from the CHU of La Réunion, will join him on May 18 and 19. The children have been selected in advance by Dr. Nivohanta Ramamonjisoa, medical coordinator for La Chaîne de l’Espoir in Madagascar.

An inauguration ceremony attended by senior Malagasy authorities, project partners and La Chaîne de l’Espoir, represented by Dr. Eric Cheysson, the association’s Chairman, will be held during the course of this surgical week.

Since 2018, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has undertaken a program to support the development of pediatric cardiac surgery in Madagascar. The objectives pursued are to reduce infant mortality among children with acquired or congenital heart disease, to gradually support the development of skills among Madagascan healthcare teams – already autonomous for closed-heart operations – so that they can eventually perform open-heart operations independently, and to continue prevention and screening for pediatric heart pathologies.

Thanks to the support of BOUYGUES International, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has built a cardiac surgery unit at the CENHOSOA hospital in Antananarivo – a unit which it has fully equipped with state-of-the-art equipment.

Training for local teams began in 2022 with internships at the CHU Félix Guyon in La Réunion and the Dakar Cardiopediatric Center in Senegal, built and opened by La Chaîne de l’Espoir in 2017. To ensure the program’s continuity, 4 companionship missions will be carried out each year for the next 3 years. The autonomy threshold is estimated at around ten years.

These surgical operations, demonstrating genuine inter-regional hospital cooperation with CHU Félix Guyon as the reference center, are part of an integrated project for the prevention, screening and development of cardiopediatrics in the Indian Ocean, a program supported by the Agence Française de Développement for a 3-year period.

La Chaîne de l’Espoir is an international NGO founded in 1994 and present in nearly 30 countries. Its mission is to strengthen healthcare systems to give everyone, especially children, the same chances of survival and development.

Anaïs Dedieu
Media and Public Relations Manager
+33 6 02 17 62 97
adedieubensaid@chainedelespoir.org