Dr Chidi Ochu Uzoma Esike, a Nigerian based doctor has discovered a new technique to control Postpartum Hemorrhage, otherwise known as excessive bleeding after child birth.
Known as ESIKE’S TECHNIQUE the method uses simple supplies in controlling postpartum hemorrhage, making it a much preferred alternative to hysterectomy, the surgical removal of a woman’s womb, which before the discovery was the only way to stop excessive bleeding after childbirth.
Speaking with The Next Edition, Esike disclosed that he actually discovered the TECHNIQE in 2009, eight years after he began his specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Noting that “excessive bleeding after childbirth is the greatest killer of women after delivery all over the world,” Esike pointed out that “this problem is worse in poor developing countries like ours.
“So I felt that any little solution or effort in solving this problem will go a very long way in saving our women when carrying out their God-given role of replenishing mankind.”
Esike, is an Obstetrician Gynaecologist with the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State and Senior Lecturer with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Clinical Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Ebonyi State university, Abakaliki.
His discovery was published in the most recent edition of the highly respected OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY the official journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists volume 136 number 3 of August 2020.
According to him, between 2009 and 2018, the Esike’s Technique had been used to treat uncontrollable life-threatening bleeding in 18 women who started bleeding uncontrollably after delivering their babies.
“Bleeding was successfully stopped with this technique in 16 of these women with the preservation of their wombs. This gives the technique 89 percent success rate in stopping uncontrollable bleeding in women after delivery and preserving their wombs,” he stated.
In the article published in the OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY journal, Esike explained that the technique involves placing six polyglactin (Vicryl) #2 or chromic #2 sutures in the lower uterine segment – three anteriorly and three posteriorly – and could be particularly useful in developing countries, where many women die from postpartum hemorrhage “because most of the medical officers who attend the majority of births in health facilities can perform cesarean delivery but cannot perform hysterectomy and find existing compression suture techniques too complex to perform.”
In addition, “specialized sutures and needles required for some of the known compression techniques are not readily available,” he wrote.
At the point Esike’s technique was used in these women, the only option of treatment left to control their bleeding was the removal of their wombs.
The implication of this being that if the Esike’s technique was not available, all the 16 women would have lost their wombs even if the bleeding was successfully stopped.
Before being accepted and published in the reputable American journal, the Esike’s technique was thoroughly scrutinized by highly experienced Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in other parts of the world. The technique was also compared to other similar methods of controlling bleeding after delivery and was found to be different, unique and to have many advantages over them.
Esike told The Next Edition that his technique has the advantage of simplicity, being easy to teach to doctors and learnt by them and in its using simple instruments that are used in everyday operations in poor countries.
According to Esike, “it is estimated that every year, about 14 million women around the world suffer from excessive bleeding after childbirth. The World Health Organization estimates that about 60% of death of women that occur during pregnancy in developing countries are due to excessive bleeding after delivery (postpartum haemorrhage, PPH for short) and this accounts for more than 100,000 maternal deaths per year.
“It is also estimated that every four (4) minutes, one woman dies of bleeding occurring after child birth.
“Dispite all the efforts by health workers to control excessive bleeding after childbirth, it is estimated that the occurrence of excessive bleeding after child birth is rising, studies having found that the rate of excessive bleeding after delivery rose from 1.5% in 1999 to 4.1% in 2009.
“Unfortunately, most of these deaths from excessive bleeding after childbirth (PPH) estimated at 99% of all the PPH occur in low and middle income countries like Nigeria with only the remaining 1% occurring in the industrialized countries.”
It is for this reason that Esike’s technique is heralded and haled at home and abroad.
At the Alex Ekwueme University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, where Esike works and where the technique was invented and the Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki the technique has been commended.
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The Nigerian Medical Association Ebonyi State where Dr Esike was a one-time chairman, in their congratulatory message by the Secretary Mr. Chijioke Anyigor Ogah and Chairman Dr. Ben Umezuruike wrote: “We congratulate one of our great teachers, a dependable mentor and one who have served our noble Association in the capacity of Chairman, Dr Chidi Esike on the international recognition of his innovative method of controlling postpartum haemerrhage. We are not unaware of the impact the result of this your creative output will bring not only to the medical profession but humanity in general.”
The Association of Resident Doctors of AE FUTHA under the leadership of Dr Osuagwu David Chidubem also “congratulated Dr. Esike on the innovative Esike’s technique invented here in Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki which is capable of competing favourably in the international space.”
From faraway United States, Dr. Angela Martin, MD a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the University of Kansas Medical Center in kanas City, United States commenting on the Esike’s technique said, “having quick and effective surgical technique for uncontrollable postpartum haemorrage is essential”.
She further stated, “I love that Esike’s technique uses polyglatin (vicryl) or chromic sutures. These are familiar to most Surgeons, cheap and typically available even in the most resource deficient settings.”