Weill Medical College of Cornell University

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Neurosurgical Missions in Tanzania

Neurosurgical diseases have a dramatic impact on society and on economic conditions in developing countries but, unfortunately, are not on the radar screen of governmental or private health or support organizations. In East Africa, traumatic brain injuries, congenital malformations and infections of the central nervous system affect children and the most productive part of society and are currently not treated effectively or simply ignored. In East Africa there is currently one neurosurgeon per 9 million people, while in the US the ratio is 1: 62500. Our mission is to provide medical training and education to physicians and other medical personnel in Tanzania in order to create independent, self-propagating, and sustainable medical care. We believe that aid without training creates dependence whereas training and education offers independence and dignity. We hope to achieve this by training surgeons at Bugando Hospital that can provide primary and emergency neurosurgical care with a focus on neurotrauma, birth defects and congenital disorders and infection of the central nervous system. Bugando Hospital currently has only minimal neurosurgical care capabilities and is training one Tanzanian surgeon in basic neurosurgery.

What we have we done so far?

Three neurosurgical missions from Weill Cornell have been conducted to Tanzania:

• Training of local surgeons: Local orthopedic and neurosurgical surgeons have been trained in spinal instrumentation surgery and craniotomies for trauma. Independently they have subsequently continued to perform these procedures successfully.
• Donation of surgical and medical equipment: Spinal instrumentation worth approximately $ 1 Mio was donated by instrumentation companies. Other surgical tools and instruments worth several million US$ have been donated and were shipped in a container to Bugando in 2009

For those interested to read more about the mission, click here.