Doctors at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), have performed a total knee replacement surgery also known as artificial knee joint surgery.

The procedure is a treatment for arthritis.

The UBTH Chief Medical Director, Prof. Mike Ibadin, told newsmen recently in Benin that the surgery was performed by a consultant, four orthopaedic doctors, two anaesthetists and a nurse.

Ibadin noted that the operation, carried out in May, was the first by a solely Nigerian medical team.

“With the already existing total hip replacement programme, this hospital is now able to replace both knee and hip joints.”

The CMD said that the early result had shown relief of pain and correction of deformity, adding that the development would bring succour to our patients ,who before now needed to go abroad for relief.’’

Ibadin said the hospital would continue the procedure every six weeks to eight weeks for the first one year and thereafter every fortnight.

It will be recalled that seven-year old, Matthew Nodik, early in the year, became the first to survive a 100-day post-stem cell transplant in an operation at the UBTH.

The Head of the medical team, Dr Nosa Bazuaye , who presented the boy to the public then said “it was an attempt to prove to the world that we can do it”.

According to Bazuaye, the feat cost the UBTH some N7 million, adding that if every state government could sponsor at least one sickle cell patient, at “least we will have an average of 37 treated cases in a year, it will go a long way.”