For a decade since 2009 MTT’s Co-Chairman, Graham Watson, travelled to Sri Lanka every year to teach surgeons modern stone surgery. Instead of using a scalpel to remove stones from the kidneys and ureter he taught them how to use endoscopes (telescopes used inside the body) to visualise the stones and then break the stones up and remove them in fragments. Within four years, open surgery was replaced by keyhole surgery!

There was such a huge patient load throughout the island, he decided to take UK surgeons, who were training in the field of kidney stones, with him to give them a highly concentrated training session, subsidised by Medi Tech Trust.

Known as the Stonebuster Initiative, this intensive hands-on training course aimed at achieving four goals by:

  • Providing doctors and surgeons with 6 months experience in 8-10 days.
  • Training local Sri Lankan doctors and surgeons at the same time.
  • Ensuring UK patients benefitted from the experience gained by their UK surgeons.
  • Establishing life-long connections between doctors and surgeons.

Why Sri Lanka

  • Less expensive course than one held in the UK.
  • Too little equipment for too many patients.
  • Rampant stone disease.
  • The variety of stones increased surgeons’ skills.
  • Children as well as adults awaited operations.

The smile in this 13 year old boy’s face after keyhole surgery to remove a 4 cm kidney stone at Colombo South Hospital tells the story of 54 such patients treated during one PCNL course

Courses were initially held in the capital, Colombo, but have also been held in Batticaloa, Anuradhapura and Kandy. The aim on each visit was to treat 30–50 patients, including young children. Feedback shows that all four goals were met on every course.

Donated Equipment

Each year, Medi Tech Trust has donated numerous items of medical equipment, with the aim of encouraging non-invasive surgical operations. Two large pallet loads were shipped to Batticaloa General Hospital with a further pallet to Kandy General Hospital.

The charity also sponsored a Sri Lankan medical equipment manufacturer to develop a Lithoclast at a third of the usual cost. In appreciation, this machine is called the Stonebuster.

Generous donations made by a supporter enabled the charity to ship a Thulium Laser to Sri Lanka, where both patients and medical staff have benefitted from the results.