Goma is located on a plateau in the middle of Africa, far away from the sea with its iodine content. That is why there are a large number of goiters there. After our Interplast team's flight home, we were able to persuade Dr. Kimona, who was always actively involved in the operations, to operate on a further 10 to 20 patients with extensive “strums” and keloids for a fee. As the latter patients come to us for cosmetic reasons, they are charged a small fee for the use of the surgery.

Because no Interplast team will be able to reach the safety of Goma in 2024 due to the rebels 70 km away, the hospital will organize a camp for Dr. Kimona where he will only operate on poor patients with goiters.

Black skin tends to develop excessive scars and scar tumors (keloids). In young women, they occur particularly frequently after piercing the ears with impure needles or broken glass.
In this patient, the keloid has grown extremely over 6 years, but has not returned after the sterile operation. These common keloids are also surgically removed by local doctors

Two gold miners, who had all their fingers and ears “surgically” severed one after the other by the rebels, until the rebels found the nuggets in their hut – and then cut off both of their lips so that they would never lie again...

Hydrocephalus, a condition in which a tube is placed from the brain to the abdominal cavity in a neurosurgery procedure in Kampala, Uganda, where the excess cerebral fluid (liquor) is reabsorbed. This stops the pressure on the brain – and the widely spaced skull bones (calvaria) slowly find each other again.

“Hippoman”, as he was called in Goma, had developed a huge tumor in his right upper jaw that no local surgeon dared to operate on. After radical resection, we used a composite pedicle to attach the 5th right rib to the pectoralis major muscle and thus reconstruct the right upper jaw over a metal splint.

“Elephant foot” of a young woman: tiny worms (filariae) in a river penetrate the skin between the toes and slowly clog all the lymph vessels of the lower leg. Dr. Sachs removed all the affected skin down to the muscles and covered the muscles with retina from the thigh, with a great result!

Recurrence of a benign tumor of the lower jaw (ameloblastoma), which originated in a tooth bud. Radical resection and reconstruction of the left lower jaw with a metal plate so that he can still chew on the right.

Benign tumor on the upper jaw, which could be removed relatively easily in toto. The patient fled on the 5th day for fear of having to pay for the operation...

Malignant bone tumor of the humerus (chondro-osteosarcoma), which Dr. Sachs was able to remove completely while preserving the nerves to the left forearm and hand, so that the woman can continue to hold objects with them.

Potentially malignant tumor of the lower jaw that may have originated from a tooth. Prof. Sieg removed the tooth radically and replaced the left lower jaw with a metal splint so that the young man can chew on the right side.