A team of 25 American plastic, reconstructive, maxillofacial, orthopedic, and ophthalmic surgeons has arrived in Lviv, Ukraine to operate on wounded Ukrainian soldiers as part of the third FACE TO FACE humanitarian mission, the Unbroken Center reported.
“Our main goal is to help the most severely injured patients with explosive traumas, as well as transfer experience in performing the most advanced technologies to Ukrainian doctors,” said Manosh Abraham, MD, head of the AAFPRS (American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery) humanitarian division.
The specialists examined 42 pre-selected patients on the first day of the mission and chose 30 Ukrainians for surgeries. Eight of them have extremely complex injuries that could require 10-15 hour operations.
One of the patients is Vyacheslav Kondrashov, a soldier wounded in June 2022 when his vehicle drove over an anti-tank mine. Shrapnel damaged Kondrashov’s face and he now needs a nerve transplant surgery to restore it.
“We have one extremely challenging patient who suffered a severe facial injury and has a completely missing lower jaw. We will use the most difficult technique in microsurgery and work with two teams,” said American reconstructive surgeon Scott Tatum. “We plan to transplant the thigh bone with soft tissues to the lower jaw while maxillofacial surgeons reconstruct the bone defect on the defender’s face. The procedure is difficult and prolonged.”
The American specialists will work together with the team of the Unbreakable Center at the First Medical Association of Lviv.
Unbroken is a National Rehabilitation Center located in Lviv, a western city in Ukraine. This centre provides medical care, including reconstructive surgery, orthopedics, and robotic prosthetics, to adults and children affected by the war. Unbroken also offers physical, psychological, and psychosocial rehabilitation for injured military personnel and civilians.
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