The number of surgical interventions in the QSUT (“Mother Teresa” University Hospital Center) clinic has been continuously increasing. The head of the surgery service at QSUT, Arben Gjata, claims that operations for malignant diseases have almost tripled compared to the 90s and the reason seems to be the way of life.

“Actually, there is an upward trend. Last year we had over 4 thousand interventions and this year we are over 4200-4300 interventions without including rcp. Many groups of pathologies have increased, gallstones have increased and this comes from the way of eating, obesity, lifestyle, but what worries you is that the malignant pathologies of the digestive tract have increased a lot. Before the 90s, if Albania had 7 new cases per 100 thousand inhabitants in colon cancer, it has already reached 17-18 new cases per 100 thousand inhabitants”, Arben Gjata, head of surgery, QSUT.

Hospitalization in the late stages of the disease remains a problem for Albania

“It is important to take measures for timely diagnosis, because based on the stage in which it is caught, recovery is also determined. – they come in late stages malignant pathologies are over the age of 50,” Arben Gjata.

The improvement of technologies, according to Arben Gjata, has led to a reduction in the length of stay of patients who perform interventions.

“In 2023, we have reached the maximum number of interventions that have been carried out in the service since the establishment of the service, and this has been accompanied by a significant reduction in the number of days spent in the hospital. If in 2013 we had 5.6 in the clinic, currently it is 2.6 hospital stays.  This is also due to mass interventions with mini-invasive surgery.

QSUT continues to cope with the largest influx of interventions and due to the fact that half of the patients are referred from regional hospitals.