Pictured below is the UK team that travelled to Dhaka this January. All the clinicians work at Great Ormond Street for Children, London with exception of Chloé Rolland who works at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

During their visit, the UK and Bangladeshi teams worked together to see 78 new and review patients – unoperated babies and previously repaired patients, often with complex problems. Together, they operated on 25 patients.

Many patients with clefts in Bangladesh are repaired by inexperienced surgeons, sometimes funded by NGOs. CLEFT’s aim is to assist the local team in building a comprehensive multi-disciplinary centre which will care for the patients until they are adult and do not require further treatment. Some were unoperated babies such as Ayman (left). Others had more complex clefts such as Adori pictured before surgery (centre) and again 10 days after surgery (right):

                  

The speech and language therapists held a teaching day with students in Dhaka University. Amy Darters is pictured below presenting at the University of Dhaka.

The 3rd Comprehensive Cleft Care Workshop at SHNIBPS was held within the hospital and was attended by 173 delegates – surgeons, orthodontists, speech and language therapist and others. The workshops included lectures, demonstration operations, clinics working together and case presentations and discussions. This was an excellent opportunity for clinicians to share information and learn from one another.