Health director-general recognised for lecture on thyroid surgery

Dr Noor Hisham (left) receiving a commemorative plaque from Prof Dr Andrew Hill for his lecture on thyroid surgery titled ‘Difficult Thyroid Surgery - Primum Non Nocere’.

HEALTH Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has been honoured for delivering a lecture at the prestigious International Society of Surgery (ISS), 48th World Congress of Surgery 2019, in Krakow, Poland.

Dr Noor Hisham, who is also the society’s Global Surgery Committee chair, spoke on thyroid surgery titled “Difficult Thyroid Surgery – Primum Non Nocere”.

“In thyroid surgery, we must first do no harm, more so in difficult cases and even if we have to take the calculated risk.

“I reiterated that surgery is an important component of primary care and that there is no universal health coverage without access to safe and affordable surgical and anaesthesia care, ” he said in a recent Facebook post.

He also touched on a 48-year-old patient who was unable to sit and walk for four years because of

the enormous size of goitre, measuring 75 x 60 x 45cm, prior to surgery.

The lecture commemorated Prof Martin Allgower, an internationally renowned surgeon, who was the Department of Surgery chair at the University of Basel from 1967 to 1983.

After the session, ISS president Prof Dr Andrew Hill presented a commemorative plaque to Dr Noor Hisham.

The 49th edition of the congress will be held in Kuala Lumpur in 2021.

ISS is the oldest international surgical society in the world, which is based in Zurich, Switzerland.