Global Cleft Lip and Palate Care: A Brief Review

Abstract

In the last decade, surgical care has gained new attention as an “indivisible, indispensable part of health care” (Meara et al. 2015; Kim 2014). No longer limited to short-term interventions, improving access to equitable surgical care is both a movement that is gaining traction and a career path that is earning acceptance (Chao et al. 2015; Dare et al. 2014; Leow et al. 2010). In the last decade, several key initiatives have launched access to equitable surgical care onto social and political agendas: The Bellagio Essential Surgery Group (Luboga et al. 2009), Disease Control Priorities II and III (Jamison et al. 2006, 2015), the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (Meara et al. 2015), WHO’s Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care (Bickler and Spiegel 2010), and World Health Assembly resolution 68.15 on surgical system strengthening (Price et al. 2015). Throughout this evolution, reconstructive surgical care for patients in resource-limited settings around the world, including cleft lip and palate care, has remained a priority to many private and governmental organizations, and now stands to benefit from this new focus. As the political landscape changes for access to safe and affordable surgical and anesthesia care worldwide, those that provide reconstructive care for children must understand the context in which this arena is changing as well as what is both possible and expected for the future.