I will be part of the Surgical Volunteers International team that was invited to start a pilot program for breast reconstruction surgery in ElSalvador. Currently it is not offered by the government and the majority of women with breast CA undergo a unilateral mastectomy with no reconstruction plans.
The underserved women with poor and limited resources will be the beneficiaries of the surgeries on this mission.
This will be a continual process with more short surgical missions planned in the future. We are hoping that eventually the entire population of females in El Salvador with breast CA will be able to benefit once we have assisted the ministry of health with implementation of up to date policies and procedures on breast reconstruction surgery
We were invited to partner with the Ministry of Health of El Salvador and the Hospital Nacional de la Mujer “Dra. María Isabel Rodríguez,” the country’s national referral and teaching hospital for women’s health.
This was a pilot mission to establish an ongoing breast reconstruction program for women who have undergone treatment for breast cancer and currently have limited access to reconstructive surgery.
During the mission, we performed the first 2 DIEP flap surgeries in ElSalvador and taught and mentored several residents and fellows.
This mission was intentionally small. While we performed several complex reconstructive procedures, our primary objective is to establish relationships, better understand the hospital system, collaborate with our Salvadoran colleagues, and lay the groundwork for a sustainable program that we can continue to build for many years to come. Beyond breast reconstruction, this partnership has tremendous potential to expand into additional humanitarian initiatives in the future, including pediatric reconstructive surgery, cleft and congenital reconstruction, physician education, and other collaborative humanitarian programs throughout El Salvador.
