Iowa Docs Amazed and Exhilarated in Tanzania

A team of three Iowa orthopedic surgeons, along with therapists, anesthesiologists and nurses performed 50 joint replacement surgeries in three days at a hospital in the East African country of Tanzania. One of the surgeons was John Callaghan, past president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a hip and knee joint reconstruction specialist and professor of orthopedics and bioengineering at the University Of Iowa Carver College Of Medicine.

Another Iowan was orthopedic surgeon Steve Meyer, who performed the first hip and knee replacements in Tanzania in 2003 and 2005. The two were joined by orthopedic surgeon Larry Dorr, a Marcus, Iowa, native and founder and medical director of The Arthritis Institute, who helped organize the trip. With them, the group brought more than $1 million worth of prosthesis, as well as antibiotics, bandages, crutches and walkers.

According to Dolly Butz, writer for the Sioux City Journal, eight surgeons worked together, performing many hip and knee replacements daily. Temperatures hovered around 95 degrees during the day, but Meyer said the hospital’s air conditioning remained off much of the time in order to decrease the infection rate. He said that the experience was taxing but also exhilarating.

The level of appreciation is just off the charts, ” he said. “So many people we saw, we couldn’t do their hip replacement, but they were still really, really, really thankful that we just considered them.

Some complications did arise in the operating room. A woman died after surgery as a result of a blood clot. During a hip replacement, a surgeon broke a patient’s pelvis while pounding the hip socket into place. The patient had to remain in traction for three months, Meyer said.

“If it happens in the United States, you just open up a tray with a bunch of plates and screws, ” he said. “They didn’t have any plates or screws in the hospital that would work.” Overall, the experience was so positive that Meyer said the group made a commitment to return to Tanzania on an annual basis. “It brought a procedure that’s done every day here to a place where it’s never done, ” he said. “It gave a lot of people hope for the future.”