Foot and Ankle Surgery courses in COSECSA
BOFAS Principles of Foot & Ankle Surgery courses in Africa
March 2019
Surgeons from Oxford have helped to deliver two specialist foot and ankle surgical training courses in sub-Saharan Africa in the past year. Led by Rick Brown, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, the teams of UK consultant surgeons ran the British Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society's 'Principles of Foot & Ankle Surgery' course in Lusaka, Zambia, in April 2018, and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in March 2019.
The course in Lusaka was held at the University Teaching Hospital in co-operation with Zambia Orthopaedic and Trauma Association (ZOTA), and the College of Surgeons of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), with 30 surgeons (including registrars) from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and Ghana in attendance to learn the important points of managing the full range of foot and ankle conditions. The course in Ethiopia was with surgeons from the Black Lion government teaching hospital in Addis Ababa, with the Ethiopia Society of Orthopaedics and Trauma (ESOT).
The 3-day courses comprise teaching presentations covering principles of foot and ankle surgery that apply globally, workshop sessions to examine patients, anatomy sessions to practice surgical techniques, and clinical cases. Local organisers arranged for case discussions of local pathology, including a large malignant melanoma of the foot (measuring 15cm in diameter), trauma cases which had presented several months after fracturing the ankle, and a symposium on foot injuries from hippo bites.
Many thanks to all the volunteer visiting and local faculty, and course organisers involved with these teaching courses, and to BOFAS for its generous support for these courses, and for continued support for surgical education in sub-Saharan Africa.