Interdisciplinary Cleft Care: Global Perspectives

Usama S. Hamdan, Carolyn R. Rogers-Vizena, Raj M. Vyas, Brian C. Sommerlad, David W. Low

Details: 742 pages, Full Color, Hardcover, 8.5" x 11"

ISBN13: 978-1-63550-344-9

Publication Date: 3/10/2022

Packed with original color illustrations and videos, Interdisciplinary Cleft Care: Global Perspectives draws from the rich national and international relationships between the Global Smile Foundation and world experts in cleft care to provide comprehensive, clear, and user-friendly content for all cleft care professionals. This text is designed to be an inclusive resource that addresses the educational needs of all cleft care providers, from novice learners looking to develop their area’s first multidisciplinary cleft team to seasoned specialists looking to improve their outcomes.

While most other educational cleft care books on treatments and techniques are relevant in high-resource settings, they may not be applicable in low and middle-income countries where orofacial clefting is most common. Interdisciplinary Cleft Care: Global Perspectives details multiple treatment modalities and surgical techniques that can be applied in low, medium, and high-resource settings alike for all key challenges in cleft care.

This book has a team-based framework with chapters that address pertinent topics in cleft care by national and international authorities on the subject from plastic surgery, facial plastic surgery, pediatric otolaryngology, oral maxillofacial surgery, speech-language pathology, dentistry, orthodontics, psychology, and more.  This text also brings attention to special topics often ill addressed in traditional cleft care resources, including psychosocial issues, safety and preparedness in low-resource settings, and guidance for building a multidisciplinary cleft care team where needed. The book includes access to 60 high-quality surgical videos to support the techniques reviewed in the chapters.

Review

“…Over 700 pages of text, in an A4 sized book, was sure to be comprehensive, but it proved to be far more than “just” a surgical manual. As such it is superb however, helped by coloured operative photography and coloured art-work (Dr Low is truly a gifted artist). Approximately 400 pages do deal with the surgical correction, in an appealing step-wise fashion, of every variety of facial, lip and palate imaginable. I was delighted to see faces pre and post operatively were not spoiled by black rectangles over the eyes and, where cosmesis is as important as function, this beautifully illustrated what could be achieved.
The multidisciplinary approach is emphasised throughout, making this of value to otolaryngologists, dental and maxillofacial surgeons, speech and language pathologists and child (indeed also adult) psychologists.  Many chapters focus on the individual contribution of each to care. The chapter for anaesthetists presents the challenges of the many congenital disorders associated with cleft defects.
Personal favourite chapters included those on primary and secondary rhinoplasty. In the former, photos after decades of follow up show that the earliest surgery need not increase scarring and distort growth, as we once warned.
A major section deals with the provision of care in outreach settings, especially in low-income countries. The text reproduces the Global Smile Foundation (GSF) site survey checklist and staffing requirements, which are quite demanding. Quality Assurance and safety issues in such an environment merit separate chapters, but I was most impressed by the use of simulation training to develop and then assess local expertise. “Teach a man to fish” (I am sure you know the rest) was how the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu phrased it and this book, with its many videos, with do much to assure that applies to helping children afflicted with such developmental abnormalities."
– Liam M Flood, FRCSEng FRCSI, in the Journal of Laryngology & Otology (October 2022)