A first for Kwazulu Natal!

At the world class Hillcrest Private Hospital, Friday 13th June 2014, Specialist Surgeon Dr Kurt Schlemmer MBChB (Pret) DA (SA) FCORL (SA) performed the province’s first Eustachian Tube dilation surgical procedure.

Situated in the suburb of Hillcrest, KwaZulu-Natal, Hillcrest Private Hospital provides quality health care driven by a strong, customer-centric focus. Hillcrest Private Hospital offers Day Clinic facilities and eight operating theatres. The Hospital provides patients with a wide array of medical facilities staffed by professional, friendly, and approachable personnel who share the hospital’s vision of moving beyond health care in both service delivery and customer relations.

Dr Schlemmer matriculated from Pretoria Boys High School followed by undergraduate training in medicine and surgery (MBChB) at the University of Pretoria (UP). In the years that followed he worked in various disciplines including emergency medicine and anaesthetics before specializing in ENT at the University of Kwazulu Natal (UKZN) obtaining the FCORL (SA) with distinction from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa in 2011.

His passion for ENT and his thirst for knowledge led him to further his education at every opportunity travelling locally and abroad in an attempt to learn from some of the most experienced experts in their respective surgical fields.

The micro dilation of the cartilaginous portion of the chronically incompetent Eustachian tube is a surgical technique pioneered by Prof/Dr. Holger Sudhoff, M.D., head physician, ENT clinic, Bielefeld (Germany):

"The introduction of microsurgical and endoscopic techniques revolutionized medicine and is still state of the art today. The development of balloon catheters used, for example, in the dilatation of coronary arteries led to revolutionary treatment concepts, previously deemed unthinkable. Transferring this technology to the dilatation of the Eustachian tube enables conservative causative treatment of chronic middle ear inflammation for the first time ever and paves the way for further treatment options, particularly for chronic tube malfunction and established middle ear pathologies."

(Prof. Dr. Holger Sudhoff)

NEOMEDICAL thanks the professional staff of Hillcrest Private Hospital for their hospitality, and the opportunity together with Dr Kurt Schlemmer to perform this first surgical procedures of it’s kind in the province of Kwazulu Natal. The surgical procedure was a success, and the patient has responded well.