Najibullah Sikandar, a neurosurgeon at Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Kabul, explained to Tolo News that preparations for the operation were lengthy, and the patient's lack of financial resources to cover the high costs led the medical team to decide to perform it free of charge. This necessitated transporting advanced medical equipment from a private clinic to the operating room at the government hospital.
The patient, named Sabirullah, had been suffering from severe and persistent pain in his thumb after being shot several years earlier in the armpit below the shoulder joint. After his attempts at treatment in Pakistan failed, as doctors there were unable to help him, he returned to his hometown in Baghlan province and then traveled to Kabul for surgery.
The doctor confirmed that this operation is the first of its kind in the history of Afghanistan, saying: "It is the first functional neurosurgery ever performed in the country. Even in many countries in the region, such operations have not yet been carried out. Developed countries do them, but they constitute only about 10% of neurosurgery operations."
This complex procedure aims to "cut off pain pathways at the point of entry of the posterior nerve roots of the spinal cord," the surgeon explained. Functional neurosurgery is defined as interventions that aim to restore normal function to the central nervous system, either by cutting off the pathological impulses or by stimulating the structures that inhibit these impulses.
Skander noted that four decades of continuous conflict had led to a stagnation in the development of surgery in Afghanistan, where medical professionals mostly dealt with gunshot and shrapnel injuries, fractures and amputations, given that most patients were military personnel, police officers and victims of terrorist attacks.
However, after the Taliban took power in August 2021, combat operations ceased, giving doctors real hope that high-tech surgeries could be performed under the new peaceful conditions.
