São Paulo – Syrian doctors are close to learning a surgical procedure that is already developed in Brazil, to save many lives. A group of specialists from Al Assad University Hospital, from Damascus, is taking a course at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, in São Paulo, to learn the surgical techniques in the area of liver transplant. "The specialists should follow from six to eight liver surgeries," said to ANBA the clinical director at the Brazilian hospital, Riad Younes.
The Syrian team is formed of six specialists, among them surgeons and an anaesthetist, who have been in São Paulo for two weeks and should return to their country on the 26th. According to Younes, in three weeks the Syrians have followed surgeries and undergone daily visits to patients who underwent transplants. On returning home, the specialists plan to start offering the surgery in Syria.
According to Younes, in the first surgeries, a team of specialists from the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital should travel to Damascus to accompany the procedure and provide assistance. "This kind of surgery does not exist in Syria. People need to travel to other countries to undergo transplants," said Al Assad University Hospital surgeon Abdul H. Sinan.
It is currently estimated that there are around 150 patients a year in Syria who need to undergo liver transplants. According to another surgeon and professor at Damascus University, Ammar Al Midani, what impressed the group at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital, apart from the infrastructure and expertise, was the program for organ donation, also non-existent in Syria.
In the Arab country, the procedure to be used is the transplant of livers between living people, in which part of a living person’s liver is transplanted into the patient.
The idea of this programme for exchange in the area of health began in July last year, when Syrian president Bashar Al Assad visited the Syrian Lebanese Hospital. In October, with the support of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, the superintendant of Corporate Strategy at the institution, Paulo Chapchap, travelled to the Arab country in the company of Younes to visit the hospital in Damascus, which is one of the largest in the country.
After the trip, the Arab Brazilian Chamber, the Syrian Lebanese Hospital and the Itamaraty, through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), elaborated a program for medical exchange, with investment of US$ 610,000, shared between the Brazilian hospital, the government of Syria and the ABC. The group of Syrian doctors visited the Arab Brazilian Chamber last week.
*Translated by Mark Ament
