Bhutan's Historic Laser Surgery At The JDWNRH

Dear Rotarians,
We successfully conducted Bhutan’s first laser surgery last week on a patient suffering from precancerous lesion in her oral cavity. She was discharged the following day. I just want to express my sincere gratitude to all the Thimphu Rotarians for doing such a meaningful project. Without the Rotary initiative, the country would never have such state of the art technology at our disposal. The main advantages of laser being precise cutting, minimal tissue destruction, and very good wound healing. It has the capacity to nip the cancerous lesion at the bud when detected early.

Thank you all once again.

Phub Tshering

Consultant Head & Neck Surgeon

Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital

Thimphu

Dr. Phub is a Member of the Rotary Club of Thimphu. He is talking of the country’s first laser medical equipment that the Rotary Club of Thimphu donated to the Jigme Dorji National Referral Hospital in Thimphu, in collaboration with some Clubs in Taiwan and the Rotary Foundation. The project cost a whooping Nu.12.00++ million including training course for 3 JDWNRH medical staff in Taiwan, in the use and care of the CO2 laser equipment.

The donation of the CO2 laser is our Club’s latest donation to the country’s health sector. This is also our single largest service project. With the successful delivery of this project, the Rotary Club of Thimphu’s cumulative donation in the health sector totals Nu.26.342 million. But that is still less than half of our support to the Education sector.

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Lasers  in ENT and Head Neck Surgery 

Laser stands for Light Amplication by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. There are different lasers in use such as the CO2 Laser, Nd: YAG, KTP, Argon etc. Their main differentiating features is their wavelength which can be used in contact and non contact modes. Out of these many choices, CO2 laser is the mainstay of lasers for use in ENT and head neck surgery.

CO2 lasers is the most widely used, well understood and well studied of the medical lasers. It is used for incision, excision and vaporization of tissues. It has a wavelength of 10.6 micron, which is ideal as a precise cutting tool for lesions located on delicate structures. CO2 Laser is a proven technology that is now adopted all over the world by the department of ENT and Head Neck surgery.

Lumenis  Acu pulse  CO2 Laser system  (the one donated by Rotary Club of Thimphu)  enjoys reputation as one of the leading CO2 laser systems in the world and Lumenis is the leading company for manufacturer of laser systems worldwide.

CO2 laser has the following applications in the Department for ENT and Head & Neck surgery:

1. Oral cavity – excision of early cancerous lesions, benign lesions and precancerous lesions.

2. Larynx – excision of lesions of the such as polyps, laryngeal papillomatosis, cysts, granulomas, vaporization of bulky obstructing, phonosurgery, vocal cord cordectomy etc.

3. Nose – excision and debulking of turbinates. 

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