Makokou, a 34-year-old, western lowland male gorilla from Johannesburg Zoo underwent endoscopic nasal and sinus surgery on June 20. Veterinarians worked to remove inflammatory polyps.
Makokou was suffering from chronic nasal discharge and swelling and the polyps completely blocked his nasal passage.
Earlier this month, the 210kg animal was flown to Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital in Pretoria for a medical exams, CT scan and tests.
This is the second time in history that a gorilla has undergone this surgery, according to the University of Pretoria. The first case was in 2014 when a male gorilla from the Woodland Park Zoo, a similar age to Makokou, developed nasal polyps and required surgical intervention.
The cause of the nasal polyps remains unknown today.
In a statement made on Facebook, the academic hospital wrote: ‘A team of specialists from the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Pretoria joined forces with human medical specialists and the Johannesburg Zoo veterinary team to accomplish the mammoth task.
‘The team made use of the latest medical technology to navigate their way through the nasal passages and sinuses of the 210 kg patient. The navigation system utilized the images that were obtained two weeks earlier when Makokou was flown to the Veterinary Faculty at Onderstepoort for a CT scan. For the first time, frozen sections of tissue removed from the gorilla’s nose were evaluated on-site by a pathologist during the procedure.’
The statement continued: ‘The polyps had prevented proper drainage from the gorilla’s frontal sinuses causing a chronic sinusitis. Infected material had to be dislodged and flushed from his sinuses. Fortunately, all the biopsies that were evaluated during the surgery showed no sign of any cancerous tissue. After three hours of surgery, Makokou was returned to his enclosure night-room where he was monitored carefully during his recovery.’
‘Makokou the gorilla will be able to smell his birthday cake on 9 July after a unique and successful surgery’ said the team.
Take a look at snippets of the surgical procedure below:
Image credit: Facebook/ Faculty of Veterinary Science, Onderstepoort
