Sidra Medicine becomes referral centre for bladder treatment

Sidra Medicine, a high-tech healthcare initiative of Qatar Foundation, has been recognised as a referral centre for bladder exstrophy by the American Bladder Exstrophy Association, disclosed an official.
“Bladder Exstrophy is an extremely rare malformation and affects one in 30,000 children, with boys being affected twice more than girls. The affected children have malformed lower abdomens that have to be fixed through a surgery. As part of its mission to set new standards in healthcare in Qatar and the region, Sidra Medicine is one of the few institutions of its kind in the Middle East to offer such a surgery,” Dr Pippi Salle, division chief of Urology at Sidra Medicine, told Gulf Times.
Working at Sidra Medicine for the last four years, Dr Pippi is in the process of building expertise in paediatric urology in Qatar and the region.
“We plan to launch a specialised centre here at Sidra Medicine,” said Dr Salle. “The centre will not only eliminate the need for patients in Qatar and the region to travel abroad for treatment, but will also act as a medical education hub, where Arabic speaking physicians can be trained to perform this complex procedure. At the moment, we are training two doctors from Sudan and Iraq and our hope is that they can go back and share their acquired knowledge and skills with their communities.”
Dr Salle, one of the world’s few experts who specialise in treating urinary incontinence, is the creator of the Salle Procedure (Pippi Salle Procedure) which involves bladder neck reconstruction and urethral lengthening using anterior bladder wall flap. The pioneering procedure corrects urinary incontinence in children with neurogenic bladder– facilitating the bladder emptying using catheters.
“I deal with severe malformations affecting children in the kidney, bladder and genital areas. Some malformations are very serious in nature causing all kinds of blocks in various urology organs. Some of the most severe cases of malformation is bladder exstrophy where the entire bladder and urethra are exposed. This is one of the malformations that we have specialised at Sidra Medicine,” he noted.
According to the physician, the whole surgery is very extensive and complex. “We have done four cases in Qatar and we are also receiving patients from outside the country including patients from the gulf neighbours. The surgery is generally done on newborns. In some cases, however, the surgery is also performed in older children as they have been waiting for long time for specialised care,” explained Dr Salle.