Departments / Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery / Cleft Mission toEcuador 2005

UMDNJ-NJDS Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Cleft Lip and Palate Mission to Ecuador
Under the Auspices of Healing the Children - Northeast and the Fundiacion El Cielo Para Los Niņos de Ecuador

As reported by:
Shahid R. Aziz, DMD, MD
Assistant Professor
UMDNJ/NJDS Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Team Leader

"Our team of 15 surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, and support staff traveled to Guayaquil, Ecuador from Newark, NJ. Our mission was sponsored by Healing the Children, Northeast and the Fundacion El Cielo Para Los Ninos de Ecuador. We operated out of the largest Children's hospital in Guayaquil, Hospital Del Ninos. The first day of our 8 day mission was screening children with cleft lip/palate deformities. Cleft lips occur when the upper lip and upper jaw don't fuse together at 10 weeks in utero. Cleft lips can be unilateral (one sided) or bilateral (two sided). Cleft palates occur when the roof of the mouth doesn't fuse during development in utero. Cleft lips create an obvious aesthetic deformity; however, cleft palates are more functionally debilitating, as speech and feeding are affected.

Our first day of screening allowed us to see almost seventy children with cleft lip and palate. Of the seventy we saw, we selected 25 children to operate on. Selection was based on the children's severity of cleft, need for surgery, as well as underlying overall health. Cleft lips are typically repaired at 3 months of age and cleft palates at 1 year of age.

The Hospital Del Ninos allowed us to use their operating room and recovery roomfacilities. Our team brought all our anesthetic and surgical supplies form the United States, so we did not need to utilize any of the Hospital's supplies. Supplies that were not utilized were donated to the hospital at the end of the mission. Ultimately we operated on 25 children. It was a very successful trip on many levels - when you repair a cleft, you are not just fixing a congenital deformity - you are improving a face, positively impacting a child's life, bringing happiness and relief to the child's family, and ultimately improving the quality of life in a community. We are already planning a return trip to Guayaquil in March 2006 to continue our work with the Fundacion."

Trip Administrator:
Beth Ruscoe, Healing the Children North East

Participants:
from the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, NJDS
Dr Vincent Ziccardi
Dr. Anthony Rega
Dr. Brian Dorfman
Dr. Edward Strauss
Fran Devonshire, RN

from the Department of Anesthesiology, NJMS
Dr. Tom Schieble, Director of Pediatric Anesthesia, UMDNJ
Dr. Myra Martin
Dr Shabeen Terani
Maria Diaz-Vega

Support Staff:
Nicea D'Annunzio
Lynn Speer, RN
Jessica Hagerman
Gibert Chang, MD - Pediatrician

Bilateral Cleft Lip	Closing a Palate
Unilateral Cleft Lip Prior to Surgery	Same Patient Immediately Post Repair
Drss Aziz and Strauss Repairing a Cleft Lip	Dr. Schieble Extubating
Dr. Schieble Taking Patient to Recovery	Recovery Room
Inside the Recovery Room	Rounding
Dr. Ziccardi's Tender Side	Dr. Aziz With a Unilateral Cleft Lip Patient
Flying to Guayaquil	Hospital Del Nino - aka - Guayquil's Childrens' Hospital - our site
Dr. Ziccardi with Our Host, Dr. Zorayda Figueroa McCarthy	Drs. Ziccardi, Dorfman, and Rega With a Cleft Palate Patient
Screening Patients - With an Ecuadorian TV crew Filming Us!	Team Tee-Shirt
Our UMDNJ Team

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