CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda | |
---|---|
CURE International | |
Geography | |
Location | 97 Bugwere Road, Mbale, Mbale District, Uganda |
Coordinates | 01°04′27″N34°10′18″E / 1.07417°N 34.17167°E |
Organisation | |
Care system | Private |
Type | Neurosurgery |
Affiliated university | West Virginia University School of Medicine |
Services | |
Emergency department | I |
Beds | 42 [1] |
History | |
Opened | 2000 |
Links | |
Website | Homepage |
Other links | Hospitals in Uganda |
CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda (CCHU) is a specialized children's neurosurgery hospital in Uganda. It is a private hospital, owned and operated by CURE International. The hospital is also a teaching center in pediatric neurosurgery for Sub-Saharan Africa. [2]
The hospital is located in the city of Mbale, in Mbale District, in Uganda's Eastern Region. This location is approximately 225 kilometres (140 mi), by road, northeast of Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city. [3] The coordinates of the hospital are 1°04'27.0"N, 34°10'18.0"E (Latitude:1.074167; Longitude:34.171667). [4]
The CCHU is a specialized neurosurgery children's hospital owned and administered by CURE International. The hospital is privately owned and charges a fee for its services. However, CCHU serves children with physical disabilities regardless of their ethnic background, religious affiliation, or ability to pay. Opened in 2000, the hospital employs 6 doctors and 33 nurses and serves more than 7,000 outpatients annually, performing more than 1,000 operations per year. The children's neurosurgical diseases treated at the hospital include: 1. Hydrocephalus 2. Neural tube defects 3. Spina bifida 4. Epilepsy and 5. Brain tumors [2]
CCHU offers the following training programs in pediatric neurosurgery in collaboration with other stakeholders:
CCHU trains resident doctors in endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV), a procedure for the treatment of hydrocephalus, a condition characterized by the accumulation of fluid around the brain. CCHU offers a program to provide training and equipment to establish three new ETV Centers each year. iPATH Fellows train at CCHU for three months and, upon completion of their training, establish a center for the surgical treatment of hydrocephalus in their own country. CCHU provides approximately US$30,000 worth of equipment for each new center. CCHU has had iPATH applicants from Ghana, Zambia, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Nepal, Senegal, Honduras, and Madagascar. The first iPATH Fellow to graduate from the program practices in western Tanzania, in a CCHU-aided pediatric neurosurgery center. [5] [6]
In collaboration with the West Virginia University School of Medicine, CCHU established in 2005 a comprehensive epilepsy program for Uganda and Eastern Africa. The program aims to: (a) Identify, evaluate and treat Ugandans with epilepsy. (b) Train African physicians in the evaluation and treatment of epilepsy (c) Conduct research on the causes of epilepsy in Africa and best practices for treatment. [7]
Neurosurgeons Benjamin Warf and Warren Boling of West Virginia University performed the first three epilepsy surgeries ever done in the region. The program in ongoing and is being evaluated for further expansion. [8]
With the encouragement and support of international neurosurgical societies, CCHU has established a fellowship program for pediatric neurosurgeons. It is the only such program in Sub-Saharan Africa. Two neurosurgeons per year will study and work at CCHU, to focus their skills on children and to concentrate on a range of afflictions of the brain and central nervous system. [8] [9]
Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system.
Hydrocephalus is a condition in which an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) occurs within the brain. This typically causes increased pressure inside the skull. Older people may have headaches, double vision, poor balance, urinary incontinence, personality changes, or mental impairment. In babies, it may be seen as a rapid increase in head size. Other symptoms may include vomiting, sleepiness, seizures, and downward pointing of the eyes.
Mbale is a city in the Eastern Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial center of Mbale District and the surrounding sub-region.
Walter Edward Dandy was an American neurosurgeon and scientist. He is considered one of the founding fathers of neurosurgery, along with Victor Horsley (1857–1916) and Harvey Cushing (1869–1939). Dandy is credited with numerous neurosurgical discoveries and innovations, including the description of the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, surgical treatment of hydrocephalus, the invention of air ventriculography and pneumoencephalography, the description of brain endoscopy, the establishment of the first intensive care unit, and the first clipping of an intracranial aneurysm, which marked the birth of cerebrovascular neurosurgery.
Endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) is a surgical procedure for treatment of hydrocephalus in which an opening is created in the floor of the third ventricle using an endoscope placed within the ventricular system through a burr hole. This allows the cerebrospinal fluid to flow directly to the basal cisterns, bypassing the obstruction. Specifically, the opening is created in the translucent tuber cinereum on the third ventricular floor.
Gail Linskey Rosseau is Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C. Prior to this position, she was Associate Chairman of Inova Fairfax Hospital Department of Neurosciences. She previously served as director of skull base surgery of NorthShore University HealthSystem. She is board-certified and has been an examiner for the American Board of Neurological Surgery. She has been elected to the leadership of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, and the Société de Neurochirurgie de Langue Française.
CURE International, based in Grand Rapids, MI, is a Christian nonprofit organization that owns and operates eight charitable children's hospitals around the world. CURE provides medical care to pediatric patients with orthopedic, reconstructive plastic, and neurological conditions. The organization's stated mission is to "heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom of God." The organization currently operates hospitals in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, the Philippines, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Holy Innocents Children's Hospital (HICH), is a pediatric general hospital in the Western Region of Uganda. Founded in 2009, it is the second entirely pediatric hospital in the country, the other being CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda (CCHU), located in Mbale, in Eastern Uganda, which was founded in 2000.
Karin Marie Muraszko is an American pediatric neurosurgeon.
Anand Veeravagu is an American neurosurgeon at Stanford University Hospital and Clinics. In 2012, he was selected to serve as a White House Fellow and is focused on innovation in healthcare delivery, traumatic brain injury, mental health and suicide prevention initiatives.
Harden Askenasy was a Romanian Jewish scientist and professor of neurosurgery, notable for pioneering neurosurgery in Israel and much of the Middle East. He was responsible for making the Israel Neurosurgical Society a member of both the European Neurosurgical Association and the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies. During his career, he served as a neurosurgeon, researcher, and professor in many areas of science and medicine including anatomy and neurosurgery. His scientific contributions laid the foundation for old and new generations of neurosurgical students who achieved high honors at the top of their profession, both in Israel and abroad.
James Rutka is a Canadian neurosurgeon from Toronto, Canada. Rutka served as RS McLaughlin Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto from 2011 – 2022. He subspecializes in pediatric neurosurgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and is a Senior Scientist in the Research Institute at SickKids. His main clinical interests include the neurosurgical treatment of children with brain tumours and epilepsy. His research interests lie in the molecular biology of human brain tumours – specifically in the determination of the mechanisms by which brain tumours grow and invade. He is the Director of the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at SickKids, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurosurgery.
Benjamin Warf is an American pediatric neurosurgeon. Warf was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012.
Susan Durham is an American Board Certified Neurosurgeon and a Member of The Society of Neurological Surgeons. A professor of neurosurgery at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, she is also Division Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.
Richard Iwa Idro is a Ugandan pediatric neurologist, researcher and academic, who serves as an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Makerere University College of Health Sciences.
Global neurosurgery is a field at the intersection of public health and clinical neurosurgery. It aims to expand provision of improved and equitable neurosurgical care globally.
Petra Klinge is a neurosurgeon and academic. She is professor of neurosurgery at Brown University.
Claire Karekezi is a Neurosurgeon at the Rwanda Military Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda. As the first woman neurosurgeon in Rwanda, and one of eight neurosurgeons serving a population of 13 million, Karekezi serves as an advocate for women in neurosurgery. She has become an inspiration for young people pursuing neurosurgery, particularly young women.
Sandi Lam is a Canadian pediatric neurosurgeon and is known for her research in minimally invasive endoscopic hemispherectomy for patients with epilepsy. Lam is the Vice Chair for Pediatric Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University and the Division Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Lurie Children's Hospital. She has spent her career advancing pediatric brain surgery capabilities globally through her work in Kenya performing surgeries as well as training and mentoring local residents and fellows.
Juliet Sekabunga Nalwanga is a physician from Uganda, who is the country's first female neurosurgeon. As of 2021 she was one of only thirteen neurosurgeons in Uganda. As of 2018 she was employed by Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala.