Thursday, March 17, 2016

A Tall Order



After several years of surgery here at Loma de Luz for advanced stage parotid disease and several facial nerves sacrificed, our teams have been very fortunate to only have one patient in the nine years we have been coming here who has required a facial nerve rehabilitation procedure.  Maritza had parotid cancer resected last year and continued to have trouble with her right eye closing all the way, so ideally needed a gold weight placed in her eyelid (not cheap!), and a tarsal strip procedure to raise up her lower eyelid.




These procedures are often performed by facial plastic surgeons, and this year is also the first year we have had a facial plastic surgeon on the trip.  Sapna Patel helped perform these procedures with a gold weight donated by Wayne Larabee, with a great result and happy patient!





This elderly gentleman has struggled for years with enlargement of the skin glands in his nose called rhinophyma, but his larger-than-life personality was never dampened (he told us he was Pinocchio's brother!). 





We were able to provide him a new nasal contour as shown in this post-operative photograph with dressing in place.  His daughter was so pleased she told him he was "guapisimo" - very cute/handsome - and ready to go find a girlfriend!










This trip was rich in with amazing preparation and assistances by Joshua Kennedy.










During the many thyroidectomies "Andre the Scrub Tech" easily managed his back table while catering to the needs of the surgical team.






As expected, equipment can often require a bit of a creative mind to make up for pieces we do not have.  Note the IV pole used to secure the laryngoscope in the suspension arm as fashioned Dr. Johnson and Joshua! In the end, the urgent pediatric airway turned out to be less than so, but we were sure happy to be prepared.









St. Patrick's Day was not forgotten! The team found everything green a posed for a quick photo at the beginning of clinic.









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