Lagoon Hospital inaugurates Joint Pain School

As part of activities to raise awareness on Joint pain, the Lagoon Hospital has established Joint Pain School, which is meant to address the scourge even as the ailment was identified as the major cause of bone deformity.

Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital United Kingdom (UK), Prof. Adesegun Abudu, said the purpose of establishing the school is because people are not conversant on how they can prevent the problem of joint pain from arising and how to manage it, if it arises.

He expressed his passion to help as many people as possible in Nigeria as people should have information and ask questions regarding their healthAbudu continued: “Joint pain is very common. All of us at one point have joint pains. The older we get, the more common it becomes. It causes disability and affects the ability to do things. If you are not careful, it can take away your independence.

“Unfortunately most of these problems can be solved. We have forms of treatment available locally. We can virtually treat everything here in Nigeria. We have simple treatment which entails seeing your doctor and taking the right painkillers for the right period. Surgery varies from injections to the keyhole surgery that involves correcting misalignments, abnormal alignment of the bone. Complex surgery involves, replacing the bone and replacing the joint. All those form of treatment are available here in Nigeria. We have replaced the whole of the arm bone which involves replacing the shoulder, the whole of the arm bone and the elbow joint all in one operation.”

Abudu added: “The problem with Nigeria is that people do not pay attention to their health. It is funny that people will see the best technicians to look after their car, than to look after their health. Most joint pains are minor and most of them occur transiently. If you have pain that is persistence for more than two weeks, you need to see a doctor. If the pain does not go away within two months then you need to see an orthopaedic surgeon.

The expert said the procedure is lot cheaper to do it in Nigeria than abroad. “Affordability is something difficult because, the procedures are meant to give you your life back to make sure that you can reduce disability to make you functional.”

He added: “Prevention is better than cure and joint pain does not develop in one day. Maintaining a good health, avoiding obesity, a good gentle exercise programme is important that entails flexibility of the joint. Keeping the muscles well toned, going to the gym is good but not over doing it and there is no supplement that can prevent joint pain.”