The Nigerian Orthopaedic Association has lamented the high rate of musculoskeletal tumours among Nigerians.

The association stated this at the opening ceremony of its 46th annual general meeting and scientific conference in Abuja on Thursday.

Musculoskeletal tumour is a situation in which cancer develops within the body tissues.

The association’s national resident, Muhammad Salihu, said this situation made one see a lot of overgrowth tissue around the body. He added that such sickness was common among the Nigerian populace.

According to him, when you mention tumours, people begin to think about breast cancer or cervical cancer, and musculoskeletal tumours are not always mentioned.

Mr Salihu said, “Quite a lot of Nigerians are dying from musculoskeletal tumours. We have gathered in Abuja to discuss this. There are about 70 papers to be discussed all around musculoskeletal tumours, the way to go about it, and the modalities of treatment.

“We want to urge the government to actually put in the musculoskeletal tumour as one of the tumours that will require intervention from it, not only on brain drain, breast cancer and cervical cancer, Quite a lot of Nigerians are dying even from both tumours, cervical and breast cancer.”

He added, “We hope the government will come to our aid for us to be able to reduce the main menace of these tumours; having said that, we would like to reiterate that we are having a quite number of international support for this AGM.

“Companies who are producing high-level materials are all here today, participating in this AGM. Some of them are the ones who gave us free prosthetics that we use for surgery on some of our patients. Surgeons are here to brainstorm on musculoskeletal tumours and the way forward for Nigeria.”

He identified some of the challenges in the management and discussions around oncology, adding that the first was to relate treatment with outpatient care and that the best treatment was for the patient to come early.

According to him, oncology treatment is multi-disciplined, which needs the assistance of pathology radiology, and collaboration among the professionals sometimes becomes challenging.

He, however, solicited the government’s support through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and other stakeholders to help subsidise the cost of treatment for musculoskeletal tumours.

He said the government could decide to buy materials like prosthetics and implants for the surgeons, adding that by doing so, it would help subsidise the materials and make the cost of the materials cheaper.

He also called on the government to do something fast about the brain drain being experienced in the medical field, adding that the government needed to prioritise the welfare of orthopaedic surgeons in Nigeria and stop the emigration of its members.

(NAN)