Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) yesterday April 10, 2011 made another landmark in orthopaedics and sports medicine when it successfully operated on joint and knee through arthroscopy. The operation was led by Dr. George John, a top notch international Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Surgeon based in Dubai, UAE.

MTRH has now joined world class medical centres offering a wide range of services in various subspecialties.

The Hospital CEO, Dr. John Kibosia has lauded the achievement and termed it a breakthrough in the area of sports surgery for the institution. ‘We as a Hospital are gratified to note with a sense of joy the work of Dr. John and our local team for the first use of arthroscopic techniques in managing patients at the Hospital.”

Arthroscopy also called arthroscopic surgery is a minimally invasive surgical procedure in which an examination and sometimes treatment of damage of the interior of a joint is performed using an arthroscope, a type of endoscope that is inserted into the joint through a small incision.

Arthroscopic procedures can be performed either to evaluate or to treat many orthopedic conditions including torn floating cartilage, torn surface cartilage, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and trimming damaged cartilage.

The advantage of arthroscopy over traditional open surgery is that the joint does not have to be opened up fully. Instead, for knee arthroscopy for example, only two small incisions are made- one for the arthroscope and one for the surgical instruments to be used in the knee cavity. This reduces recovery time and may increase the rate of surgical success due to less trauma to the connective tissue. It is especially useful for professional athletes, who frequently injure knee joints and require fast healing time. There is also less scarring, because of the smaller incisions.

The surgical instruments used are smaller than traditional instruments. Surgeons view the joint area on a video monitor, and can diagnose and repair torn joint tissue, such as ligaments and menisci or cartilage.

It is technically possible to do an arthroscopic examination of almost every joint in the human body. The joints that are most commonly examined and treated by arthroscopy are the knee, shoulder, elbow, wrist, ankle, foot, and hip.

Dr. John and the orthopaedics surgeons from MTRH and Moi University, School of Medicine will have week-long surgeries on all joints arthroscopies.

He will be visiting the Hospital every month where it is a catchment area of the international athletes. Dr. John, having dealt with international sportsmen and women was elated to learn and associate with Eldoret, the “City of Champions” where MTRH is situated.

MTRH is finalizing modalities for an Advanced Sports Medicine Centre.