This year marks Dr Charles-Henry Rochat’s 30th mission to Tanguiéta
FISTULA MISSION
- A total of 32 women underwent surgery.
The on-site mission was led by Dr Renaud AHOLOU, head of the maternity unit and medical director of Tanguiéta Hospital. He was responsible for examining the patients and preparing the files and operating schedule. He was also responsible for allocating the operators and assistants.
Doctor Jean de Dieu FOMA YUNGA, national focal point for the Fistula programme in Benin, spent a few days with the team.
Dr Gilbert FASSINOU and Dr Imelda OUAKE, hospital practitioners at the Cotonou University Centre, in gynaecology and urology respectively, stayed for the entire mission.
A large number of doctors specialising at various levels of training took part in the presentations.
As for the “foreign” team, in addition to Dr Charles-Henry ROCHAT, there was Professor James O. PEABODY from Detroit, USA, who has been taking part in the workshops since 2007. There was also Dr Martin RANDRIANTSALAMA, a GFMER fellow in his 4th year of specialisation in Urology in Dakar.
Professor Abdulaye BOBO DIALLO, a urologist in Conakry, was also scheduled to be part of the team, but had to cancel his participation due to a sudden general strike in Guinea.
In addition to Dr Martin RANDRIANTSALAMA, two other urologists in training in Cotonou, who are also in receipt of a GFMER support grant, were able to obtain leave to join the mission.
GENERAL UROLOGY
- 10 men with urethral strictures were also operated on openly.
In the early years of his work at Tanguiéta Hospital, Dr Rochat’s team was confronted with numerous cases of urethral stenosis in men. These cases can be infectious, iatrogenic or, more often than not, the result of urethral rupture following a road accident in which the pelvis is shattered. These men are condemned to live with a cystostomy tube, i.e. one that exits between the navel and the pubis.
Here too, Dr Rochat’s teams have adapted techniques that have produced excellent results, making the Saint Jean de Dieu hospital in Tanguiéta a reference centre for these delicate operations, on a par with fistula surgery.
