Cape town - Cape Town’s Tygerberg Hospital was blooming with excitement for eight families who are part of the Smile Week which took place from 28 October to 1 November in partnership with the Smile Foundation and BigShoe.
Smile week not only transforms lives physically but also restores hope and confidence as this life-changing initiative provided eight children with vital corrective surgeries, led by renowned surgeons Dr Frank Graewe and Professor Robert Mann.
Dr Graewe is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon renowned for his expertise in advanced surgical techniques. His work notably focuses on craniofacial surgery, cleft lip and palate repair, as well as aesthetic surgery.
Professor Mann is a highly esteemed Paediatric Plastic Surgeon from the University of Michigan who has developed several innovative surgical techniques, including the Double Z-Plasty +/- Buccal Flap Repair for cleft palate.
Professor Mann's published 29-year follow-up study, demonstrates that this technique achieves excellent speech results for all cleft types, irrespective of their width or classification. Both surgeons shared their invaluable skills with South Africa's local surgeons during this initiative.
Professor Nick Kairinos, the Head of Department at Tygerberg Hospital said that the reason they have only done eight surgeries is because these were complex cases which take longer.
“Our local surgeons are performing many (surgeries) too. On Monday we did an ear reconstruction, done by one of our local surgeons and it went very well.
“We are privileged to have a great mind in Cleft Palate surgery, such as Professor Mann, travelling to our country to impart his wisdom on his new technique.
“His technique is designed to have fewer operations to meet the same goals as the oldest techniques. This is a huge plus for a country with severe constraints on resources.”
Prof Mann said that he has been involved with cleft care and craniofacial surgery for over 40 years.
“Every reconstructive specialty such as trauma or cancer reconstruction focus on tissue replacement. All other specialties are constantly seeking new and better ways to improve the effectiveness of tissue replacement.
“In contrast none of the traditional cleft lip or palate repairs add any tissue to the cleft defect and still today the most commonly used repair for the anterior cleft palate defect is a repair developed in 1859,” said Prof Mann.
“I thought there was a great opportunity to modernise cleft care and started developing new surgical repairs based on adding tissue to the cleft defect. I have developed tissue replacement approaches for every phase of cleft care. Primary lip, nose and palate treatment and for those children whose initial palate surgery failed to achieve acceptable speech, I designed several procedures to incorporate tissue replacement into a salvage repair to improve speech.”
Prof Mann said that the cause of a cleft is still considered multi-factorial but it is predominantly a genetic issue however everyone has the potential to have a baby with a cleft, roughly 1 in 500-600 live births worldwide may be associated with a cleft.
“Presently there is no way to actively prevent a cleft but with tissue replacement babies born with just a cleft defect can be treated very successfully and have great life like everyone else.”
“I have enjoyed working with the surgeons and everyone associated with the talented cleft team at Tygerberg. Cleft care is the ultimate collaborative effort. The multidisciplinary approach used in cleft care has proven to be the best method to improve health care. I always learn from all of the specialties (speech, dental, nursing, etc.) and go home with new ideas that I incorporate into my future teaching. And I have learned a great deal here in South Africa.”
marsha.dean@inl.co.za