Humanitarian
You don’t have to go far to dohumanitarian work.
Every day, in the privacy of their practice, some committed doctors do humanitarian work. Others, equally dedicated, go on missions… To us this seems natural; it is simply part of our profession.
Organisation
Interplast-France
Interplast-France / Humanitarian Plastic Surgery is a French NGO specialising in plastic surgery in developing countries. Dr Knipper has been its president since 2003.
You can help us: advice, contacts, donations. Visit the Interplast-France website ↗ or contact us about a partnership.
Building on this field experience, a university diploma in humanitarian plastic surgery was created to train surgeons from developing countries.
Purpose
Why are there humanitarian plastic surgery missions?
Because plastic surgery meets the pathologies encountered
congenital malformations of the face or limbs, skin sequelae of tropical diseases or burns, tumours, functional sequelae of post-traumatic limb injuries…
Because it exists as a distinct specialty
Surgeons used to operate on every patient whenever they knew the appropriate technique. Quite naturally, humanitarian missions have specialised as surgery has specialised.
Because it is easy to “export”
simple, easily transported instruments, skin surgery less prone to infection, quick results, straightforward follow-up, easier teaching: this is the concept of nomadic plastic surgery.
Because volunteer teams exist
nurses, anaesthetists and surgeons who go on missions together.
Because we operate on many children
Giving a dream back to a child without a face is perhaps putting a face on our own dreams. Why do we go on missions? Simply for a dream: the regained smiles of children, parents, patients.
Concepts
Four concepts developed on missions
Plastic surgery in challenging conditions
Practising plastic surgery in difficult circumstances: developing countries, makeshift facilities, specific pathologies such as noma, and the need to master many areas of plastic surgery (hand, burn sequelae, orthopaedics and trauma, maxillofacial…).
Humanitarian cosmetic surgery
Must a face be destroyed by a tropical disease, such as noma, for the depth of our gesture to become aesthetically acceptable again? Can humanitarian work be cosmetic?
Ethno-surgery
Born from the coexistence of our biomedicine and traditional medicine: treating the patient as a whole, with sophisticated techniques, while respecting their origins, beliefs and local healing traditions. Transforming the body in harmony with its surroundings.
Aesth-ethic surgery
Combining aesthetics with ethics in plastic surgery. Ethics answers a fundamental question: how to do what is best? For a doctor, the best is to heal the patient: cosmetic surgery is ethical because it heals.
Missions
The missions in pictures
Reports, mission films and broadcasts. Videos open on YouTube, Vimeo or on the partner media sites.
Rêve de gosse (A child's dream)
Surgical camp in northern Senegal
Toliara, Madagascar
Reconstructive surgery at the Bétéla centre, run by the Sisters of Saint-Paul de Chartres
Northern Senegal
Free plastic surgery camp for patients in need
Saint-Louis, Senegal
Surgical mission in a dispensary · free camp at the SCL Diama
30 years of Interplast
Interplast-France / Chirurgie Sans Frontières turns 30 (1993 – 2023): looking back
Earthquake in Turkey
Exploratory mission with Pompiers Solidaires
Moundou, Chad
90th Handicap Santé mission in southern Chad
N'Guelakh, Senegal
Reconstructive surgery camp
Armenia
Armenia mission 2022
Armenia
Reconstructive surgery mission for the war wounded
Armenia
Missions in Armenia in October and November 2020
Yerevan burns centre
Report by Gilles Bader for Le Point (09/11/2020)
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
TV5 Monde Info broadcast, 25 October 2020
Cameroon · Covid-19
Mission during the coronavirus pandemic
Health hut, Senegal
Day surgery in a health hut
Moundou, Chad
M'Ndigi Nja Tar
Panzi Hospital, DRC
The hospital of Dr Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize laureate: the hospital that repairs women
Cameroon
Health campaign · nomadic surgical mission
TEDx Talks
Conference
N'Guelakh, Senegal
Nguelack mission
Saigon, Vietnam
Mission in Saigon
Logone, Chad
Aminata, the cut woman…
Medina, Casamance
Nomadic surgery mission
Moundou, Chad
Surgical mission
Chirurgie Sans Frontières
The NGO on a mission
Bagadadji, Senegal
Bagadadji dispensary
Madagascar
Nomadic surgery: by land, by sea, by air and by passion…
Rural Casamance
Santé Magazine In Vivo · report by Charles Villanove
Hebron, West Bank
Santé Magazine: a hospital in the heart of the fighting
Paris attacks
Testimony, 13 November 2015
Benin · Niger river
Reports “S'il te plaît, dessine-moi un visage” and ARTE Reportage: ethno-surgery
Ghana
The child who no longer wanted to hide · DGP Production
Benin
Ethnic plastic surgery
Benin · Allada
Buruli ulcer… silently · CFI and Oyiwan
Madagascar
Reconstructive surgery mission · “7 à 8” TV programme
Ethics
Humanitarian missions and medical ethics
Patient autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice: how do these principles apply in an African village, in the middle of a mission? Our questions in the field.
Contact
Support the missions
To help Interplast-France (advice, contacts, donations) or to propose a partnership, please contact the practice.