Nigeria came on the hammer of the military rule from December 31 1983 following a coup d'état that ousted the democratically elected civilian administration of President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari. As the military held sway over an interregnum of 16 years, the entire infrastructure (including health) connected to the country’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) components collapsed. There was poor service delivery with a humongous brain drain that badly hit the health sector. At the return of the civilian regime in 1999, the new civilian administration led by President Olusegun Obasanjo, began a rigorous effort to resuscitate the moribund health institutions. Thus, Nigeria’s match towards health for all began. Towards this aim, hospitals were refurbished and reequipped nationwide. This progress continued with the three national orthopaedic hospitals (Lagos, Enugu & Kano) taking the lead towards improving Orthopaedic practices in Nigeria.

In 2008, at National Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu, the Medical Director, Dr. Chukwuemeka Benjamin Eze, decided to focus on arthroplasty, hence his decision to institutionalize the practice. In order to achieve this, he appointed Dr. A.U. Katchy, the head of arthroplasty unit with a mandate to ensure that the institutional objective was achieved. He signed a contract with the J&J on supplies and training. Consequently, there were series of hands-on-trainings that involved both local and international resource persons. These workshops attracted participants nation-wide. During one of the trainings at Enugu, Dr. Amechi. U. Katchy and Dr. Michael Ugbeye (who was one of the resource persons for the series of the workshops) approached the then business development manager for West Africa, Johnson & Johnson, Mr. Gbenga Olatunji about the possibility of setting up a professional society that will propagate the practice of arthroplasty in Nigeria.
The duo further engaged Mr. Chuks Ugochukwu, then then Regional Manager ,South East on strategies of realization of its set of objectives. A tripartite meeting of Dr A. U. Katchy, Dr Mike Ugbeye & Dr Felix Ogedegbe followed up this discussion with the J & J company which resulted to approval of a take-off grant to the new society in 2011. Unfortunately, this grant expired as the society was still at its anchorial stages and was unable to access the grant.
The trio continued to pursue relentlessly the midwifing of the new society. Subsequently, the committee was expanded to form the Board of Trustees/First executive of the new society with the following as members:
•    Dr. A.U. Katchy- Chairman/President
•    Dr. Michel E. Ugbeye-Vice Chairman/Vice President
•    Dr. Felix Ogedegbe -Secretary
•    Dr. F. E. Aaron-Member-Member/Treasurer
•    Dr. Cosmos O. Ihezie -Member/Editorial Secretary
•    Dr. Muhammad Salihu-Member/Ex Officio

This Board of trustee had its inaugural meeting at National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi and the secretary was mandated to pursue its registration with CAC. The Arthroplasty Society of Nigeria came into existence on March 10,2011 and series of meetings followed thereafter and membership sought from qualified NOA members until a formal inauguration was done at National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi by the then Medical Director Dr. Olurotimi Odunubi on Friday 10th March 2017. Since then the Association has been growing from strength to strength with a nationwide membership base with the 2nd President Dr Felix Ogedegbe ably piloting the affairs.

We welcome you all on board!!!

What is Arthroplasty?

Orthopedist have different titles in different countries: in many countries they are called physicians. They are all part of the same profession.

Orthopaedic surgeons are devoted to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders of the bones, joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles. Some orthopaedists are generalists, while others specialize in certain areas of the body, such as: Hip and knee. Foot and ankle.
Orthopedist are qualified and professionally required to:

•    Undertake a comprehensive examination/assessment of the patient/client or needs of a client group
•    Evaluate the findings from the examination/assessment to make clinical judgments regarding patients/clients

Core Values, Mission & Vision

Our Core Value

Core values of the Association shall be “Professionalism and Altruism”

Our Mission

The mission of Association shall be “Securing good health and motion for all”.

Our Vision

The vision of Association shall be “Establishing integrity, collective responsibilities and shared decision making”.

Our Objectives

The objectives of the association are to:

a) Promote qualitative professional development which facilitates excellence in Arthroplasty outcomes and professional accountability.

b) Support evidence-based Arthroplasty practice and high quality research in various aspects of Arthroplasty, and to promote opportunities for the spread of knowledge of new developments in all fields of Arthroplasty.

d) Represent, promote and protect the interest of all members, and the profession of Arthroplasty in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large.

e) Provide justice to all members in accordance to the principles of natural justice.

f) Advocate for global best practice, particularly in the field of rehabilitation in Nigeria;

g) Lobby other organizations including government institutions and non-governmental organizations for and/or on behalf of Arthroplasty.

h) Advance Arthroplasty education and practice in Nigeria.

i) Create awareness and marketing Arthroplasty as the leader in the treatment and prevention of disorders of human movement.

j) Pursue any other matter related to the Objects as may be determined to be appropriate by the ASN from time to time.

Quality Control and Assurance

Arthroplasty Society of Nigeria- Quality Control and Assurance

The Arthroplasty Society of Nigeria (ASN) is committed to the establishment, implementation, and institutionalization of Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) process in the treatment and care of the patients we manage.

By Quality Control we refer to the part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements while QA focuses on the “part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled or complied with” QA is the institutional self-evaluation, recognition of problems and implementation of changes. Quality Assurance will include Good Documentation. Documentation must be complete, plausible, verifiable, comparable, and analyzed to implement corrective measures.

ASN has already taken the critical initial steps of stablishing an Arthroplasty Registry-which is a fundamental component of tracking the outcome of patient care and by extension improving the same.

The objectives of the QC and AQ processes is to bench mark our practices with international best practices of quality, safety, and outcome within the Nigeria/African context. ASN will continue to advocate, encourage and where necessary support training and capacity building to members.

ASN aims to encourage members to implement internal Quality Process aimed at identifying system defects in the process and outcome of care and taking relevant policy and practical steps in addressing the same.

ASN will also work with members and professionals as well as relevant regulatory authorities to implement periodic and regular External Quality Assurance Process and practices.

Scope: ASN Quality Assurance procedures will cover: Structural, Process and Outcome quality indices;

• Structural Quality- qualification of care-providing staff, equipment and implants available, environmental safety
• Process Quality- effective scheduling of operations, theater management and therapy management
• Outcome Quality - patient status and outcome monitoring