What’s the need?
Myanmar was developing rapidly since opening up to the outside world in 2007, both economically and in terms of medical care. This has gone into reverse since the military coup of 2020. Myanmar people, and especially the medical staff, are incredibly welcoming and friendly. English comprehension amongst doctors is good, but variable elsewhere. At no point did any of the team feel threatened or concerned about their safety, with the female team members quite happy to go out for walks by themselves in Yangon.
Advances in hand surgery over the last 3 decades appears to almost single handedly be the result of efforts from Prof Myint. Hand injuries are frequent and often severe due to the lack of health and safety protocols, old and unprotected machinery, lack of education and child labour. Outside of Yangon there are only 2 hand surgeons in Mandalay. Most hand injuries are inadequately dealt with by rural doctors and traditional healers.
There is only one small Plastic Surgery department in Yangon which prior to the coup was run by 3 consultants, and around 18 junior doctors. The department handles large volumes of maxillofacial and head and neck surgery, and the occasional lower limb reconstruction at the request of the orthopaedic surgeons. However there are great difficulties with Burns Surgery in Myanmar, and they are very keen for help in this field.
Previous Visits
May 2018 - Initial trip along with Cambridge Global Health Partnerships. Lectures in hand surgery, tutorials in lower limb reconstruction and a tendon repair workshop was performed. Two cases of lower limb reconstruction were performed with the orthopaedic team in theatres.
Nov 2018 - Guest speakers at the 2018 PanAsian Orthopaedic conference in Yangon. Soft tissue hand reconstruction lectures and practical course, and lower limb trauma management and reconstruction course. Meeting and visit with Plastics and Burns department.
April 2019 - Microsurgical lectures and practical course with both the plastics and orthopaedic junior doctors. Orthoplastic ward rounds established, discussions on exam syllabus design and future plans for burns surgery with Myanmar department of Health representative. Four joint surgical cases of lower limb reconstruction were performed between the orthopaedic and plastic departments.
Feb 2020 - Hand fracture and distal radius fixation course of lectures and practical sessions.
Future Plans
Unfortunately due to the coup all future visits have been postponed, even though the COVID pandemic is now settling. We continue to try and help our contacts remotely through webinars, tutorials and emotionally in any way we can. Communication from outside Myanmar has been difficult, and in fact many of the doctors we had been training have escaped the country for their own safety.