Nordica Fertility Centre, a company focused on fertility treatment in Nigeria launched the High-Intensity Focus Ultrasound (HIFU) in Africa’s most populous nation.
According to the organisation, the centre will focus on the development of minimally invasive solutions for symptomatic uterine fibroid.
The HIFU is the world’s first and only transcervical fibroid ablation system that combines the first-ever intrauterine ultrasound guidance with the proven benefits of targeted radiofrequency energy with no incision, uterus preserving procedure.
The company also announced that it had its first three patients treated with the new HIFU treatment in the country.
“Nigeria under this new technology, acquisition has joined a unique league of 29 countries in the world where this feat is possible, said Abayomi Ajayi, managing director, Nordica Fertility Centre.
Read Also: How HIFU can improve fibroid treatment in Nigeria
“HIFU is a scientific breakthrough which is available in 29 counties and about 350 centres globally,” he said.
According to Ajayi, this project is coming at a time, the country is embattled with various negative stories and is in needs a positive boost to give its population something positive to think about.
“The Fibroid Care Centre is the response to the yearnings of a teeming population of women suffering from Uterine fibroids,” he said.
“This condition has been known to greatly impact the quality of life of sufferers resulting in loss of man-hours, impact on their homes, careers, jobs, and relationships across all spheres of life,” he noted.
He added that fibroid has contributed to the inability of some women to conceive babies, thereby affecting their fertility and its attendant challenges emotionally and psychologically.
Uterine fibroids are the most common tumors in women of reproductive ages. They affect approximately one-third of women aged 35 and about 70 percent of white women and more than 80 percent of black women having uterine fibroids before the age of 50, according to experts.
“For most women suffering from fibroids, they are scared of the open surgery that had hitherto been the only option in taking out the Fibroid. Today, Nigerians have a choice of our various Endoscopic services or pin-hole surgeries as they are commonly referred to or the new-age non-invasive solution using High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound – HIFU,” he said.
“This procedure uses ultrasound rays to burn off the fibroids without any invasive method,” he added.
Also speaking at the launch, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, wife of Lagos State Governor said marking the former launch of the fibroid care centre and official commissioning of the high intensity focused ultrasound by Nordica Fertility Centre is a milestone of the unveiling of the latest technology in the management of uterine fibroids here at the centre of excellence and state of aquatic splendor is no doubt a welcome development that will greatly facilitate the treatment of uterine fibroids in a non-invasive manner, as well as put Lagos on the global map of uterine fibroid management.
“It is worthy of note that the high-intensity focal focus ultrasound technology being introduced in Lagos is the first of its kind in the West African sub-region and the third on the African continent. fibroids, as we know, affect the major majority of women, especially African women, being a growth that develops in a woman’s uterus,” she said.
Sanwo-Olu added that the unveiling of this new technology will considerably improve health indices in Lagos, as it concerns screening for uterine fibroids, diagnosis, treatments, care, and support.
“It is also a world-class facility that will help to significantly reduce medical tourism outside Nigeria, thereby contributing to the growth and development of our national economy.
“As a member of the medical family, I appreciate yet the quantum leap, the cyber care centre will provide to us as a state and as a country in our quest to address this medical condition and hugely improve treatment outcomes in our state’s today’s own failing perfectly aligned to the vision of the present administration of Lagos State,” she said.
During the launch of the centre, Patricia Omoke, one of the beneficiaries, shared her experience using the facility. “I am one of the recipients of the free HIFU treatment, the procedure took about an hour, five minutes. I’m very excited about using HIFU and feel great being the first.”
