An innovative, world-class clinical programme in Pediatric Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery is now available at Sidra Medicine. The clinical team is expected to dramatically reduce the number of patients from Qatar needing to travel abroad to receive specialised care for a host of complex congenital conditions.
The Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery programme at Sidra Medicine leverages the expertise of outstanding clinicians to care not only for congenital and acquired conditions affecting the cranial, orbital, and maxillofacial skeleton, but also conditions affecting the ears (microtia reconstruction), peripheral nervous system (e.g. facial palsy and brachial plexus injuries), the hands and feet, complex vascular and pigmented anomalies, burn contractures, and all other manner of reconstructive challenges.
In the first year since hospital opening in January 2018, the Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery team, under the leadership of Division Chief Dr Mitchell Stotland, has successfully conducted the full range of complex procedures available in their specialty, many of which were the first of their kind in the country and region.
“At Sidra Medicine, we have a phenomenal team that works exclusively in a real-time multidisciplinary fashion alongside a broad range of other pediatric specialties including Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology, Orthodontics, Allied Health and others. In-house 3D imaging, modeling and printing capabilities also support our service,” he told The Peninsula.
Dr Mitchell Stotland, added: “We follow many of our patients from birth through to adulthood, and we have the wonderful privilege to watch them evolve as individuals. Our treatment often requires many stages of intervention carried out over years, and is aimed at improving function, appearance, and overall quality of life.
“An abbreviated list of the complex surgeries that our Plastic and Craniofacial team provides at Sidra Medicine includes: total cranial vault remodeling, cranial distraction and spring expansion; frontofacial advancement procedures; the full range of cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries; orthognathic surgery; orbital and eyelid reconstruction; ear reconstruction; microsurgery; facial re-animation surgery; primary and secondary facial trauma reconstruction; and reconstruction of complex hand anomalies” said Stotland.
The quality of care, the patient and family-centered approach, the high-tech facility and services, and most importantly the diverse and highly specialised teams at Sidra Medicine, rival any of the top children’s hospitals in the world.
“Not only have we started to see interest from patients internationally, we are also witnessing reverse medical tourism in many cases, where many families who previously would have travelled abroad for specialised Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery for their child are now opting to stay in Qatar and come to us instead,” said Dr Stotland.
One issue that Dr Stotland is committed to working on is earlier detection and referral of complex craniofacial and hand deformities, he pointed out that optimal care (and sometimes more minimal intervention) often requires that treatment is begun early, before progressive deformity has ensued. Sidra Medicine aims to increase awareness in 2019 about its services in Pediatric Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery both locally as well as more broadly across the region.
