The members of the team were:

Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Ridzwan bin Ahmad Senior Plastic Surgeon
Prof. Dr. Muhammed Ali Noor Senior Spine Surgeon
Dr. Kamil bin Mohd. Kasim Hand Surgeon

All of the team members met at the KLIA airport and left the country via GULF AIRLINES. The whole journey took about 10 hours with about 2 hours of transit at Bahrain International airport. We reached Damascus at about 2000H and was met by the residents , Dr Ali and Dr. Ahmad who then brought us straight to the Sheraton Hotel in Damascus.

We were then taken to Hospital Al-Mujtahed the next morning by Dr. Ali, one of the hospital’s residents. After a short introduction with the senior personnel at the orthopaedic clinic, we were then taken task to screen the patients who were shortlisted by the hospital’s surgeons. From the patients seen by Prof. Dr. Ali, only three patients were shortlisted for surgical intervention. The rest of the cases which were very complex scoliosis were felt to be to complicated and needed few procedures to be undertaken for the cases. However, for the Hand Surgery cases most of the cases that were seen needed microsurgical procedures with the aid of a microscope of which was not available at the hospital Also some of the cases also needed few procedures since it was too complex to be done within a single operation.

For Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Ridzwan, he initially screened some cases of the Hand Surgery with Dr. Kamil on the first day.

The cases were then listed down for operation over the next three days, ie, one on each day and all of these cases were under general anaesthesia. The cases that were shortlisted are:

- 2 cases of posterior fusion of the spine
- Removal of implant post scoliosis correction

On the next day, we were invited to attend a Health Care Conference by the Syrian Health Ministry. It was held in a Convention Center at the outskirts of Damascus. We were registered for the conference and were then ushered into the room where we were informed that two slots were reserved for presentation from our team. The presentations given to the audience were :

Alternative Technological Approaches - Prof. Dr. Muhammed Ali Noor
Flexor Tendon Injuries : Management - Dr. Kamil bin Mohd. Kasim

Prof. Dr. Muhammed Ali Noor operated on the first case on the third day which was on 20th April 2008. The case went ahead without any problems and at the same time Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Ridzwan was seeing some cases brought forward by the Plastic Unit of the hospital. A case of cleft lip and palate was brought by the Oral & Maxillofacial Unit to be shown to Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Ridzwan. Over the next two days, the cases listed for operations was proceeded with an additional case of the cleft lip & palate which was done by Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Ridzwan.

While at the hospital, we also managed to give some presentations to the residents and the senior surgeons of the respective units. The lectures given were:

Alternative Technological Approaches - Prof. Dr. Muhammed Ali Noor
Flexor tendon Injuries - Dr. Kamil bin Mohd. Kasim
Cleft lip and Palate - Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Ridzwan
Parotid gland Surgery - Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Ridzwan

Overall the trip was a learning experience for all of us. This time round the team comprises of very senior and experience surgeons and the cases selected for the operation were simple and uncomplicated cases. This is due to the fact that we were not sure of the available instrumentations and support present that may have a bearing on the operation and the patient’s morbidity. We hope that residents would
have benefited from our stay at Al-Mujtahed Hospital.