Turkish doctors traveled to Tanzania and the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar with the support of the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA), affiliated with the Prime Ministry. The doctors have performed several surgeries at the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital and the Muhimbili National Hospital, the largest hospital in southeast Africa, located in Dar-es-Salaam. The Turkish doctors, who performed the first tooth filling in Zanzibar on a humanitarian aid mission last year, can now boast about having performing the first successful cataract surgery with a phaco probe.After Dr. Niyazi Bülbül performed a phacoemulsification cataract surgery, Tanzanian doctors began referring more patients in need of eye surgery to the Turkish doctors. Noting that he performed seven surgeries in two days, Bülbül explained that the first phaco probe arrived in the country earlier this year, but that it had not been used due to technical training inadequacies. He then went on to explain that with the machine, it was very easy to perform cataract surgeries.
Pointing out that difficult cataract surgeries can be completed in a short time with the phaco probe, Bülbül said: “Difficult cataract surgeries were not being performed because the machines were not used. We performed the first [phacoemulsification] cataract surgery in Tanzania, and we had the opportunity to share our technical knowledge with our local counterparts. We've operated on seven patients within two days with these machines. After the first surgery, we had patients lining up.”
Bülbül explained that by performing the surgery, they made Tanzanian doctors very happy and noted that patients were able to be discharged just 20 minutes after surgery.
