AOFAS volunteers travel to Vietnam for treating people with lower extremity deformities

Volunteers from the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) returned to Vietnam this year to provide corrective surgery for children and adults with lower extremity deformities and disabilities. For three weeks, AOFAS volunteers traveled to hospitals and rehab centers in Ba Vi, Hanoi and Lao Cai, treating patients and working with local orthopaedic surgeons.

This year's volunteer group evaluated 218 patients in clinics and performed surgery on 66, all at no cost to the patients. Since the first AOFAS Overseas Outreach Project to Vietnam in 2002, more than 1,300 patients have benefited from surgery performed without charge by AOFAS volunteers, and more than 3,000 patients have been seen in the clinics. Most patients are from impoverished areas and lack access to care. Others are unable to afford advanced medical services.

Scope of Volunteer Work
Patients with untreated congenital deformities are common in the clinics, and they have a range of challenging conditions. AOFAS volunteers used basic orthopaedic principles to accomplish specific surgical goals because many of the implants and imaging tests used in the United States for diagnosing and treating orthopaedic foot and ankle problems are not available in Vietnam.

"Most of the surgeries we performed involved complications of clubfoot and cerebral palsy," said A. Holly Johnson, MD, who practices in Boston. "The patients were amazingly resilient and brave, and we felt lucky to have the opportunity to offer them our care. We also enjoyed teaching the local surgeons diagnosis and treatment algorithms for different foot and ankle problems."

The AOFAS surgeons volunteered their time and paid for their own travel to Vietnam. In-country expenses were supported by the AOFAS Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Foundation with charitable donations from individuals and industry. This was the 15th annual project sponsored by the AOFAS and its partner organization, Mobility Outreach International (MOI).

During the multi-week project, which ended in mid-June, the volunteers worked at orthopaedic rehab centers and taught residents. In addition to Johnson and Mihalich, volunteer surgeons included Naomi Shields, MD, of Wichita, Kansas, and Raymond J. Sullivan, MD, of Hartford, Conn.

Education is an important part of the outreach project, and the AOFAS volunteers presented at the annual conference on Surgery of the Lower Extremity held on June 11 in Hanoi. Co-sponsored by the AOFAS, MOI, the Vietnam Ministry of Health and Viet Duc University Hospital, the conference utilized simultaneous translation and was attended by 120 Vietnamese orthopaedic surgeons. The program included presentations by four Vietnamese surgeons. The AOFAS volunteers also presented at smaller seminars in the hospitals where they worked.