The Yobe State University Teaching Hospital (YSTH) on Saturday performed the first hip replacement surgery for a young man who suffered from avascular necrosis of the head of the femur limb.

The hospital authority said the hip surgery breaks a formidable record as the first hospital to conduct the rare first surgery in the Northeast region.

According to the State Commissioner of Health and Human Services, Dr. Muhammad Lawan Gana, the surhery landmark achievement was a hitherto non-available orthopedic surgical procedures in the form of Total hip replacement.

Gana disclosed: “The patient, a young man with sickle cell disease who suffers from a medical condition called avascular necrosis of the head of the femur due to sickle cell disease.”

Dr Lawan Musa Yari, akso led the specialized surgical operation with Dr musa Abdulmalik, Dr Bashok palagvi, Mr Manasseh Jonah and Mr Karumi Ibrahim as members of the team.

It would be recalled that the Damaturu Specialist hospital, in May this year, successfully carried out a major maxillofacial surgical procedure on a 40-year-old mother diagnosed with mandibular ameloblastoma, involving advanced reconstruction of plates and an iliac crest bone graft surgery.

Medical experts in the state have attributed the two break throughs to Governor Mai Mala Buni’s commitment to manpower development and provision of state-of-the-art working tools to medical facilities in the state.

The Yobe State University Teaching Hospital, and the Damaturu Specialist hospital, were the first state-owned medical facilities in the North East to successfully conduct the two specialized surgical operations.

While appreciating the state government’s focus on healthcare delivery, the experts urged the state government to sustain the tempo to curb medical tourism both within and outside the country.