Challenges of minimally- invasive orthopaedic surgery practice in Nigeria - a national survey of residents' perceptive.

BACKGROUND

Minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery (MIOS) practice globally has been on a gradual increase, however the current state in Nigeria is not same.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the challenges of minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery (MIOS) practice in Nigeria and proffer realistic suggestions to improve the current state in Nigeria.

METHODOLOGY

A descriptive cross-sectional online survey conducted among senior orthopaedic surgery residents across all specialist hospitals in Nigeria. Data was analysed with the SPSS software version 20. Significance was set at p<0.05. Mean and S.D scores were calculated for responses with Likert scales of 1-5 (5- strongly agree).

RESULTS

48 residents completed and submitted the questionnaire, response rate of about 70.6%. The results showed that the most significant factors affecting minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery practice in Nigeria were lack of funds (72.9% of respondents), unavailability of equipment and implants (60.4%), limited number of trainers and fellows skilled in minimal access surgery (54.2%). The narrowest Standard deviation reflecting closest precisions in perspectives of the challenges was a S.D of 0.794, Mean 4.02, which stated that there are very few courses on training of MIOS procedures.

CONCLUSION

Funds, training, equipment availability were the major challenges of minimally invasive orthopaedic surgery practice in Nigeria.