Haiti Days 5 & 6

Wednesday and thursday were both busy days. On wednesday, we did two palates and three lips. On thursday, we did two lip revisions and excised lesions from the tongue and forehead. One of the more interesting cases we did was a gentleman who had an infection of the corner of his mouth at a young age. This infection caused him to lose the entire left side of his upper and lower lips causing him a significant cosmetic deformity (no lips) as well as functional problems like drooling and the inability to create a seal with his mouth (i.e. to drink through a straw). This man has been living with this problem for about 20 years, and has carried around a spit rag for this entire time. We closed the corner of the mouth by advancing the surrounding tissue. This will cause the overall size of his mouth to decrease, but will hopefully help with his problems with drooling, eating, and drinking.

We have finished most of the palates, as it is better to do these earlier in the week incase they have any postoperative problems with airways.

The haitian nurses, who have been our scrub nurses on this trip, are doing very well and are improving daily.

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