Medical personnel from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and other volunteers recently finished a mission to perform corrective surgeries on pediatric patients in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Toshiba Medical donated its Viamo portable ultrasound system to assist with the surgeries at Bugando Medical Centre, which serves about 13 million people.

These surgeries were carried out on children with anorectal malformations and Viamo was used to image their urinary tract and spinal cord. Local staff was also trained in how to perform exams on patients with similar abnormalities.

“We look forward to this mission in Tanzania so that we can educate and provide necessary resources in an underserved community,” Dr. Steven J. Kraus, division chief of fluoroscopy and staff pediatric radiologist in the department of radiology at Cincinnati Children’s, said in a statement.

He added that technology like the Viamo ultrasound is more difficult to come by in those regions. That makes it a challenge to perform routine imaging for anorectal malformation, which occurs in one in 5,000 live births.

Toshiba Medical received FDA clearance for the Viamo ultrasound in February 2010. It was designed with advanced radiology capabilities that were previously unavailable on portable ultrasound systems.

This marks Cincinnati Children’s second annual mission to Tanzania — the last mission was carried out in May 2016. Next month, it will be completing its third mission to the East African country using the Viamo ultrasound.

For this mission, Cincinnati Children’s also partnered with the nonprofit organization Mending Kids, which provides surgical care to children around the world. Through the organization, thousands of children have received corrective surgeries for congenital heart defects, orthopedic abnormalities, severe scoliosis, colorectal anomalies and significant cranial-facial deformities.

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