CIRPLAST: Cleft Lip and Palate Missions in Peru

The author presents a 20-year experience leading cleft lip and palate surgical volunteer missions in Peru for CIRPLAST, a nonprofit volunteer plastic surgery goodwill program that has provided free surgery for patients with cleft lip and palate deformities in remote areas of Peru. Surgical procedures were performed by the author, together with a group of experienced plastic surgeons, under the auspices of the Peruvian Plastic Surgery Society, and local health authorities.

CIRPLAST missions are scheduled annually in different locations around Peru. Selected patients for surgery after adequate screening are photographed, and their cleft deformity is recorded. Scheduled patients or their parents, when they are minors, sign an informed consent form. Patients operated on in any given day are examined and photographed 1 day after surgery, before discharge. Between 30 and 35 patients are operated on at each mission site. About 2 weeks after the mission, patients are checked and photographed, and the outcome of surgery is recorded. Complications that may occur are recorded and treated by the CIRPLAST team as soon as possible. Almost all operations are performed under general endotracheal anesthesia coupled by local anesthesia containing a vasoconstrictor, to reduce bleeding and facilitate tissue dissection. All wounds of the lip and palate are closed with absorbable sutures, to avoid the need for suture removal. After cleft lip surgery, patients go to the recovery room for monitoring by nurses until they recover completely.

A total of 6108 cleft lip and palate repairs, primary and secondary, were performed by CIRPLAST in 141 missions, between May 12, 1994, and October 15, 2014. The medical records of the 5162 patients (84.5%) who returned for follow-up (ranging from 12 days to 9 years) were reviewed retrospectively. Between 45% and 70% of the patients operated on a mission have returned for early follow-up and some the following year. There were 3176 males (51.9%) and 2932 females (48.1%). The incidence of isolated lip clefts was 1546 patients (25.3%); of isolated palate clefts, 2223 patients (36.4%); and combined defects, 2339 patients (38.3%). Of the 5162 patients who returned for follow-up, 377 patients (7.3%) had complications. Lip wound dehiscence was present in 58 patients (15.4). Palate fistula formation in 33 patients (8.8%): 24 (6.4%) after primary palate closure, and 9 (2.4%) after previous fistula closure. Infection occurred in 37 cleft lip patients (9.8%). Hypertrophic lip scars were seen in 56 patients (14.9%). Bleeding occurred in the recovery room after palatoplasty in 48 patients (12.7%), and in most cases, it was contained by applying pressure. No blood transfusions were used. Residual deformities of varying degree of the nose and/or lip occurred in 145 patients (38.5%). All required reoperation for correction. There were no intraoperative deaths in this series.

During the past 20 years, the CIRPLAST team has offered free surgery with good outcomes and few complications, to more than 6000 cleft lip and/or palate patients in remote areas of Peru.