Picture from Vientiane Times 2012-01-26
Xayxana Leukai
Surgeons from Mahosot Hospital and the Netherlandsbased Bridge the Gap Foundation have provided free surgery to 48 people with cleft lip and palate and six others with noma.
They began the surgeries at Mahosot Hospital on January 16 and ended the programme today. The surgeons aim to restore the faces of poor people suffering from debilitating and disfiguring diseases.
Bridge the Gap Foundation President Dr Just Van Otterloo told Vientiane Times this week that noma was the most difficult condition for the surgeons to operate on. Noma is a disease which degrades the tissue and bones of the face.
“It takes a whole day to conduct reconstructive surgery for just one case of noma,” he said. “People with noma usually have to travel outside the country for treatment.”
According to Dr Otterloo, noma generally begins as an ulcer in the mouth which, if left untreated, can eat away the flesh of the cheek or lip. It is mostly young children who suffer from the disease, especially those whose health is compromised by a lack if hygiene and nutrition.
Survivors of the disease are left with severe facial disfigurement and find it very difficult to eat and speak. The exact cause is unknown, but it may be bacterial. Noma usually occurs in places where there is a lack of hygiene and clean water. It begins primarily in malnourished children from two to five years of age.
During the two-week visit to Vientiane, nine doctors and nurses from the Bridge the Gap Foundation worked alongside about 30 Lao doctors and nurses at Mahosot Hospital.
Over the 10 day period, the teams performed reconstructive surgery on people who came to the hospital after the programme was widely advertised around the country.
This is the seventh time the Dutch team has come to Laos to perform this kind of surgery after their first visit in 2006.
A member of the Mahosot team, Dr Keutmy Khansoulivong, said taking part in noma surgery was a good experience for Lao doctors and nurses, who learnt a lot from the experience.
At least four noma cases are reported in Laos every year. However, Dr Otterloo said the case load was not sufficient for Lao doctors to specialise in the surgery.
In contrast, Lao medical staff have a lot of experience in cleft lip and palate surgery, as about 200 cases occur each year in Laos, he said.
Dr Keutmy said people with cleft lip and palate disorders are welcome to undergo free surgery at Mahosot Hospital year round, after the US-based Smile Train pledged support for the scheme in 2008.
The Bridge the Gap Foundation first carried out surgery on a Lao noma patient in 2009. A team of Dutch surgeons comes to Vientiane in January every year, and the project will continue until 2015 under a Memorandum of Understanding between the foundation and the hospital.
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