The first day of the mission of American plastic and reconstructive surgeons Face to Face in the National Rehabilitation Center UNBROKEN of the First Medical Association of Lviv has started. Here, together with Lviv doctors, they will treat patients for free.
This is the third American mission in Ukraine. This time, 25 leading specialists from various fields came to the UNBROKEN center. These are plastic, maxillofacial and reconstructive surgeons, ENTs, orthopedists and ophthalmologists.
“Our main goal is to help the most serious patients with mine and explosive injuries, as well as to transfer the experience of using the most modern technologies to Ukrainian doctors,” said Manosh Abraham, MD, head of the AAFPRS humanitarian division, department of otorhinolaryngology, surgeon.
Specialists selected 42 patients who are examined today, on the first day of the mission. Also, 20 Ukrainians were selected for operative interventions. Of these, 8 have extremely complex injuries, and their operations can last from 10 to 15 hours. One of these patients is military officer Vyacheslav Kondrashov. The man was injured last year in June. With his comrades, the defender ran over an anti-tank mine. Debris damaged the face. Now, to restore it, Vyacheslav needs a facial nerve transplant operation.
American reconstructive surgeon, professor of the department of otolaryngology – head and neck surgery Sherord “Scott” Tatum told about one of the most difficult interventions that are planned to be performed.
“We have one extremely complex patient who has suffered a severe facial injury and is completely missing his lower jaw. We will use the most difficult technique in microsurgery and work in two teams. We plan to transplant the femur on the vessel together with soft tissues to the lower jaw. At the same time, maxillofacial surgeons will reconstruct the bone defect on the defender’s face. The intervention is difficult and long-lasting,” the doctor said.
Ahead – 5 operating days. The first surgical interventions are scheduled for tomorrow morning.
As a reminder, this humanitarian mission was created in cooperation with the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) (The Educational and Research Foundation) and Razom for Ukraine and ngenius organizations. During the previous two missions, medics operated on 50 patients, and consulted another 80.