Dubai: The opening of a new hospital, designed to perform up to 2,500 advanced orthopaedic surgeries and joint replacements per year, was announced at Arab Health on Wednesday.
The new Burjeel Hospital in Dubai will house the first gait analysis lab in the GCC, designed to assess walking disorders for specialised orthopaedic and neuromuscular conditions.
The new project dovetails well with the Emirate’s vision of being a hub for medical tourism and the rise in demand for bone and joint surgeries.
According to available 2012 UAE statistics from the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and Dubai Statistics Centre, 18.2 per cent of people complain of joint problems before travelling abroad for treatment whereas 14.1 per cent of the population cite bone and joint diseases as the main reason for seeking treatment.
Further, factors such as an ageing population, rising obesity, prevalence of arthritis, and lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, affect the joints, whetting the demand for such surgeries.
Scheduled to be operational in March, the 35-bed project is led by Emirati Dr Samih Tarabichi, a joint replacement and orthopaedic surgeon who pioneered bone replacement surgery in the UAE, and holds four patents in the field.
The Burjeel Hospital for Special Surgery and Tarabichi’s Centre of Joint Surgery is collaborating with Germany-based HELIOS ENDO-Klinik, an internationally recognised clinic for bone, joint and spinal surgery.
Speaking to Gulf News, Dr Tarabichi, who has performed more than 8,000 joint replacement surgeries in the US and the UAE, said the demand for orthopaedic surgery was high in the UAE and the region.
He said: “Last year itself I performed 900 joint replacement surgeries in Dubai. Generally, 90 per cent of the cases are straight forward with the remaining being highly specialised due to tumours or trauma. Most cases are due to advanced osteoarthritis [OA] and growth deformity in older people. The high demand is also due to the backlog — the number of people who haven’t opted for joint surgeries.”
Dr Tarabichi projected that seven to 10 per cent of elderly patients in the UAE need joint replacements.
Of gait analysis, he said it provides comprehensive information on skeletal alignment and muscle function to diagnose walking disorders. The analysis can help conditions such as lower limb deformity, arthritis, stroke, spina bifida and cerebral palsy, among others.
“Through the gait lab we can analyse the muscle functions in complex cases,” he said.
Dr Ramadan Ebrahim, director of regulation at the DHA told Gulf News that there is a definite need for specialised orthopaedic centres.
“From our data, we know that people travel from the Middle East and North Africa region for surgery. In the UAE, people with diabetes and those who are obese are more prone to joint problems, pushing the demand for specialised orthopaedic centres higher.”
