• Treatment
• Long-Term Care
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• Doctors Short-Term Training
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• Research Papers
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• Funding Statement
• Projects to Fund

Treatment

Dr Melaku doing a round in Mekele

Treatment at the Fistula Hospital involves comprehensive care for women who have suffered childbirth injuries, the related stigma associated with leaking body fluids and from being marginalised by their communities.

The Fistula Hospital offers surgical repair of fistulae, holes that have opened up between the bladder and/or the rectum and the birth canal as a result of long, obstructed labour. This requires specialist surgical intervention but in most cases can be repaired successfully. Ethiopian and expatriate doctors at our centres are able to manage these cases with a success rate of around 95%.

Patients outside the main ward Addis Ababa

If a woman arrives at one of our centres in good health, apart from the fistula, her treatment may be complete in under three weeks. However, in other cases she may need much more than fistula surgery. This may include:

• Physiotherapy: Nerve damage during obstructed labour can result in a condition known as “dropped foot”. Other women have contractures of tendons and muscles in their legs and hips due to long periods of lying in bed or on a mat waiting for the urine to dry. Some women arrive unable to walk. It may take more than 6 months of physiotherapy before the woman can regain the use of her legs and be ready for surgery.
• Stress Incontinence Management: Some women have damage to the nerves and muscles that control the operation of the bladder and urethra. Some repair is possible but further treatment and exercise of the relevant muscles can make a difference. We have a special clinic devoted to this work.
• Stoma Patients: Some women are so extensively injured that their bladders are almost completely destroyed. These patients can be offered further surgery to divert their urine into a bag through an opening in the abdomen. They will need specialist counselling and training to enable them to live with this condition. Returning to a remote village in the countryside will then be difficult because of the increased risk of infection and requirement for a supply of clean bags. We have a special programme offering accommodation, and training in life-skills and income-generation to women with stomas at our farm village, Desta Mender.
• Psychological Counselling: Most of the women who come for treatment have suffered great loss (a child, husband, femininity and sense of worth) and may have been isolated from family life. These women need specialist care. We have a psychiatrically trained nurse who assesses the needs of each patient and ensures that these are recognised.
• Extended Medical Care: Many women arrive suffering from other medical ailments that may or may not be connected with their fistula and consequent isolation from their communities. We offer treatment and nursing care for malnutrition, anaemia, parasites, skin conditions and more serious problems such as TB, malaria or kidney failure. If necessary we pay for their referral to other specialised clinics.
• Education: We have teachers who offer literacy classes in the main languages of Ethiopia to patients. They also give basic Health Education. Both pre- and post-operatively the women have the opportunity to learn embroidery, knitting, basket-making and other crafts. Their work can be sold or taken home with them. This keeps them active and gives them a new skill.