Noma surgery
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Noma Microchapters |
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Noma surgery On the Web |
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American Roentgen Ray Society Images of Noma surgery |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Surgery
Known in antiquity to such physicians as Hippocrates and Galen, noma was once reported around the world, including Europe and the United States. With the improvement in hygiene and nutrition, noma has disappeared from industrialized countries since the 20th Century, except during World War II when it was endemic to Auschwitz and Belsen concentration camps.[1] The disease and treatments were studied by Berthold Epstein, a Czech physician and forced-labor prisoner who had recommended the study under Josef Mengele's direction.[1]
The progression of the disease can be halted with the use of antibiotics and improved nutrition; however, its physical effects are permanent and may require reconstructive plastic surgery to repair. Reconstruction is usually very challenging and it should be delayed until full recovery (usually about one year following initial intervention). [2]
The disease is rarely treated since in some cultures it is considered taboo.
Children and other noma survivors in Africa are helped by a few international charitable organizations—such as Facing Africa (a UK registered charity that helps Ethiopian sufferers). Despite the fact that more than 400,000 children are affected in Africa alone, there is only one noma hospital in all of Africa. Noma Children Hospital Sokoto is located in Nigeria and aside from the regular doctors, European and American medical teams travel there to perform operations. Without plastic surgery, the children's faces cannot be restored. In other countries, like Ethiopia, international charities work in collaboration with the local health care system to provide complex reconstructive surgery which can give back facial functions such as eating, speaking and smiling. Teams of volunteer medics coming from abroad are often needed to support the local capacity to address the most severe cases, which can be extremely challenging even for senior maxillofacial surgeons. On 10 June 2010 the work of such volunteer surgeons was featured in a UK BBC2 documentary presented by Ben Fogle titled 'Make me a new face - Hope for Africa's hidden children'.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lifton, Robert Jay (1986). The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and Psychological Genocide. Basic Books. p. 361. ISBN 0-465-04905-2.
- ↑ Neville, Brad. Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, 3rd Edition. Saunders Book Company, 062008. 5.11.2