July 10, 2006	Monday

KARACHI, July 9: Lack of burn care facilities and shortage of related medicine expertise were the major causes behind burn scars, deformities and contractures in patients in Pakistan.

These views were expressed by visiting plastic and reconstructive surgeon from the US, Dr Michael E Schafer, while talking to newsmen after conducting a skin grafting on the lower face and neck of a 20-years-old girl from Karachi at the Burns Centre of Civil Hospital, here on Saturday

Dr Schafer noted that mostly it were the dearth of specialized knowledge of burn injuries, improper management of burn patients and absence of physical and occupational therapy that contributed to deformities and contractures.

He remarked that burn deformities cases were in significant number in remote and rural areas as health facilities did not exist, while on the other hand people were ignorant of the carelessness meted out to burn patients.

To a question, Dr Schafer said that Pakistani surgeons and nurses were competent enough to handle deformity cases and visits of foreign experts were surely going to enhance their level of information and expertise.

He said that he had been working in the field of burn scars, deformity and contracture treatment for the last 20 years. My first exercise outside US was in Philippines and since then I have been visiting countries under philanthropic arrangements to perform surgeries on post-burns contractures and congenital deformities, he added, saying that such tours, in addition to performing for aesthetic reasons, also helped sharing information and learning from medical professionals and peoples suffering injuries in different countries.

Saturday was the third day of plastic surgery workshop at the CHK, where Dr Schafer, along with Dr William Geoff William of Texas University, performed surgeries on post-burn patients.

In addition to surgeons training programme, a workshop on "enhancing nursing skills" was also being conducted in the Professional Development Centre of the Dow university.

Ms Lesliee Emmert, an instructor nursing skills from Houston and Ms Hashmat Effendi of House of Charity, Houston Texas, imparted education to local nurses, mostly from Dow Institute of Nursing.

A coordinator for the surgeries hoped that as per plan the two foreign doctors, along with local surgeons, would perform 30-35 surgeries by July 9, when the special theatre would be wound up. Patients were invited to get registered for treatment, majority of the patients (15) belonged to Jacobabad.

Depending on the type of scar, different surgical procedures are employed for burn scars/deformities/contractures, which occurred when a burn scar pulled on the edges of the skin making a tight area, causing functional limitation and could also affect the muscles, joints and tendons, said an expert.

Dr Feroz Ismail, President of Health and Social Welfare Association, said that foreign experts in burns had been visiting to Pakistan earlier too, but this time they were operating at the Burns Centre, a 66 bedded burns care facility run under public and private partnership, for the first time.

He said that his association had arranged the medical mission to operate on post burns and congenital deformities in the Burns Centre and NICH. The mission is leaving for Lahore on July 10 but will return for treatment of paediatric burns at the NICH.

President of Burns Centre, Mohammad Abdullah Feroz, said that visit and operations by the Houston's doctors was a good experience and beneficial to burn patients, a majority of whom belonged to poor class.

We are working on a plan under which the mission in question may carry out surgeries after every one or two months, he added, saying that we have got registered a good number of deformity and contracture patients needing the treatment, which cost significantly high in the private sector.

The medical superintendent of CHK, Dr Kaleem Butt said that the Burns Centre had got the state-of-the-art facilities operating in line with the international standards and was providing 100 per cent free treatment and medicines to patients.

The executive director of Burns Centre, Dabirur Rehman, said that 743 patients were admitted for medical and surgical treatment at the centre from Jan 2005 to June 2006, while 3,187 were attended at the OPD.