By NAKUBIANA SHABONGO-
TWO visiting surgeons from the United States are in the country to perform cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries on children below 18 years at Beit CURE Hospital.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are variations of a type of clefting congenital deformity caused by abnormal facial development during gestation.
Dr Joseph Clawson and Dr Michelle Vasselly are expected to conduct a number of surgeries on children from all over Zambia focusing on the cleft lip and cleft palate.
Beit CURE Hospital Executive Director, Tim Ebbers said the surgeons who come to Zambia for the specialised surgeries annually will conduct operations this week.
Mr Ebbers said the hospital tried to line up many cleft lip and cleft palate patients to undergo surgery that would assist the children recover from the disability.
He said about 1,700 children were born with cleft lip cleft palate globally with Africa having a high prevalence and most of the patients were between seven months to four years.
“The two surgeons will this week conduct the cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries. Normally as a hospital we do not handle plastic surgery, we handle orthopeadix among others and so we do bring specialists and they are here for a week,” he said.
A cleft lip or palate can be successfully treated with surgery, especially if it conducted soon after birth or in early childhood.
Beit CURE Zambia is one of the few hospitals in Zambia able to adequately address the surgical needs of the disabled children in the country.