Lab gets kidney machine

Another lithotripsy machine has been installed at a private laboratory in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, bringing to two the number of such machines in the country.

Only the National Hospital, Abuja hitherto had the machine.

The machine imported by Two Tees X-ray Centre, Yemetu, Ibadan provides an alternative to surgery on the treatment of kidney stone.

According to the lab Managing Director, Dr Tunde Adepoju, the equipment can break stones in the kidney without undergoing surgery. He explained the machine takes the patient through a painless 45 minutes using the force of short waves to overcome the tensile of the stone. The process is called fragmentation.

Although understood,　 fragmentation is thought to occur through a combination of methods including comprehensive and tensile forces, erosion, shearing, spalling and cavitation.

Dr Adepoju further explained that stones grow in the kidney when one fails to drink enough water. According to him, small particles are formed and these later become stones in the kidney. When they grow, they block effective operation of the kidney and hinder it from giving out normal urine. "Then the kidney will begin to swell and become non-function. That is what is called kidney failure. This machine is a new technology in Nigeria. It is an alternative to removing kidney stones through surgery. With the lithotripsy machine, there is no anesthesia or surgical pains," he said.

Dr Adepoju said:　"The patent just stretches on the table that comes with the machine and the location of the stone is identified through the help of a close circuit television connected to it.

"After locating the stone, we then centre the equipment on it and send spark waves to the stone through the body of the patient. Painless breaking occurs as we send the spark. Thereafter, we will do another X-ray and if it confirms that the stone has been fully broken, we ask the patent to drink plenty of water to flush out the fragments from the system. There is no admission or complications of surgery."

With the presence of the machine in Ibadan, patents in south will no longer need to travel abroad or go as far as Abuja for treatment of kidney stones, he advised.