The largest children’s burn unit in the western regions of Ukraine, the UNBROKEN Center, has received a modern CO2 laser for scar resurfacing. In just two months, doctors have used it to treat 30 children with scars of varying severity. Previously, they had to be sent abroad, but now such treatment is possible in Lviv.
Last year, the NESLAMNI Center, Kyivstar mobile operator, Dobro.ua charity platform and thousands of Ukrainians joined forces to support the burn center at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital. Together, they managed to raise UAH 3.5 million, which was used to purchase a CO2 laser for scar resurfacing. So now children with scars sustained as a result of war or in the home can receive free medical care in one medical facility in Ukraine.
One of the patients who is being helped to remove his scars is 12-year-old Vitaliy from Sambir district, the son of a defender. As a result of a severe burn injury to both legs, the boy has already undergone 10 surgeries, with 12% of his body area affected. And now he needs to improve the condition of the affected skin, as there are quite large scars. The boy will have to undergo at least six such laser procedures.
“The accident at home happened a year ago. I had a skin transplant and even the first resurfacing, and now we have come for the second resurfacing. Now it is more like a cosmetic defect that my son wants to get rid of,” says Roman, Vitaliy’s father.
This laser is a standard in the treatment of scars in children abroad. It is an alternative to surgical treatment, especially in cases where the area of scarring after burns is too large to allow for simple excision.
“Most children’s burn units abroad have such lasers. In our country, this is the first and only laser in a children’s hospital. We perform CO2 scar resurfacing for babies under general anesthesia, and for older children under temporary application anesthesia.
The procedures are performed with a certain time interval – at least a month or two, and it can be several such procedures, depending on the condition of the scar tissue. It is important that the resurfacing can be started no earlier than six months after the burn to avoid causing increased scarring of the tissues,” explains Halyna Sayan, head of the Thermal Trauma and Plastic Surgery Center at the NESLAMNI.
“This laser helps children to grind down their scars and live a full life. That’s why it was such a big public fundraiser for this laser, which was joined by our company, philanthropists, and opinion leaders,” says Daryna Vlasenko, head of the Children’s Hope project and manager of corporate and social projects at Kyivstar.
The children’s hospital emphasizes that since the full-scale Russian invasion, constant shelling, and rocket attacks began, the number of children with burns has increased significantly. And it is here that young patients come from different parts of Ukraine. Last year alone, about 700 children with burns received help here.
“The problem is very urgent, the number of burns and post-burn scars has increased, especially last year due to the use of various lighting and heating devices when there were power cuts. Also, many children now get thermal skin lesions not only in everyday life, but also because of the war. After all, every mine-blast injury is a severe burn, and such patients need long-term treatment. Because they grow, but the scars on the burn sites do not, so they need to be polished,” explains Zoryana Ivanyuk, Deputy Director for Development and Investment at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Lviv.