I started coming to Kenya on a regular basis from 2010, when I first attended the Pan African Congress of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Nairobi. During this conference I met other Kenyan Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons who encouraged me to come back on a yearly basis to contribute to The Prof Pratt Project, a voluntary pro bono week of operating at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) to perform Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery on patients who would normally not be able to afford such surgical expertise in a multidisciplinary setting. I became part of and member of the Kenyan Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (KSPRAS), attending all their meetings and being actively involved in the following years with charity projects, operating on dozens of patients in our yearly reconstructive camps, as well as organizing sponsorship and donations to make these operations possible. These operations conducted by myself and the team included reconstructions of severe burn mutilations and contractures, complex hand surgery reconstructions, skin grafting, facial reconstructions after trauma, and congenital plastic surgical reconstructions.
My specialist knowledge in reconstructive microsurgery and hand surgery saw me teaching the residents my techniques I had learned in the UK and Germany during my own training, supplying not only expertise but also instruments, suture materials, other equipment and also donations received through fundraising from German and Kenyan Companies, to make the projects a success.
As Specialist Consultant at Valentis Clinic initially, renamed in 2018 to “Vitality Fountain Clinic”, I have made it a priority to regularly operate on patients who cannot afford this kind of specialized surgery. Various patients have benefitted from the pro bono operations I have conducted, including adults severely scarred with facial burns sustained during the post-election violence, children with complex birth defects on face and limbs, severe forms of Neurofibromatosis, patients with life-threatening infections following surgeries elsewhere who needed emergency intervention, and skin cancer reconstructions for people living with albinism.
Other pro bono / charitable Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Projects for past 10 years 2010 – 2020 I was actively involved in include those listed in the blogs.
Teaching Plastic Surgery in Kenya
An important part of my life is also active involvement in teaching local Plastic surgeons and residents during projects, conferences and organizing national workshops during the years 2012 – 2019, and lecturing at AKUH to local residents as well as including them in my cosmetic operations to share my skills and knowledge.
Some of the workshops I helped organize include:
2nd Annual International Breast Cancer Symposium and Breast Surgery
Preceptorship Education & Outreach Summit
Lectures, demonstrations and cadaver dissection at Chiromo Campus, Nairobi
Dr. Tilman Stasch (Facilitator, lecturer, anatomical demonstrator)
2nd Annual International Breast Cancer Symposium and Breast Surgery Preceptorship Education & Outreach Summit, 19-21. Aug 2019, Nairobi
Aesthetic Surgery in Kenya
Operative Workshop and Lectures: Several topics, operations included rhinoplasty,
lipomodelling, buttock enhancement
Dr. Tilman Stasch (Initiator and conducting surgeon)
Upper Hill Medical Centre, 1. - 3. March 2016, Nairobi, Kenya
Hand Surgery in Kenya
Facilitation of hand surgery workshop for residents and consultants of various specialties (Plastic Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery) with Lectures and hands-on cadaver dissection for hand surgical problems and procedures as well as live operations
Dr. Tilman Stasch (Initiator, facilitator and lecturer, surgeon)
KNH and Chiromo Campus 29. June – 3. July 2015, Nairobi, Kenya
KSPRAS Breast Surgery Workshop
Lectures, live operations (Fatgrafting Breast Reconstruction after Breast cancer)
Dr. Tilman Stasch (Facilitator, lecturer, operating surgeon)
Upper Hill Medical Centre, 10-13. April 2017, Nairobi, Kenya
KSPRAS Surgical Flap Workshop
Lectures and Cadaver dissection (Local, regional and free flaps of the Upper Limb)
Dr. Tilman Stasch (Facilitator and lecturer)
University of Nairobi Chiromo Campus, 22-23. March 2017, Nairobi
KSPRAS Fat Grafting Workshop
Lectures and Live Operating (Contour defects, Buttock enhancement, Bilateral
breastaugmentation, chronic wound)
Dr. Tilman Stasch (organization, lecturer, operating surgeon)
5th Annual Internat. Conference of KSPRAS, 22. - 23. Aug 2016, Nairobi
Scientific work on Plastic Surgery in Kenya
It is important for me to be at the pulse of time, to update my knowledge on all subjects in my field at all times, but also contributing to the world of Plastic Surgery through research and publications:
I regularly present scientific papers at national and international Conferences on subjects pertaining to the practice of Plastic Surgery in Kenya (30+ lectures and presentations conducted), representing Kenya as my country of residence and practice to a wide international scientific audience. This has furthered the reputation of Kenya as a country where excellence in the field of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is recognized.
I am proud to have introduced a new surgical technique to Kenya (The DEALT Method – Debridement and Lipotransfer), which not only benefitted hundreds of patients due to its cost effectiveness and easy to perform nature, saving limbs and lives, but has now been implemented into the surgical armamentarium of many Kenyan Surgeons. This technique uses the patients own fat / mesenchymal stem cells to heal chronic and otherwise not healing wounds, ulcers, pressure sores, complex deformities, burn contractures etc.
Lectures at AKUH Nairobi, Chiromo Campus and KNH to Surgical Residents and Consultants on various subjects included: Background and Principles in Wound dressing of complex and chronic wounds, diabetic ulcers and wound complications, Intravenous Nutritional Therapy (IVNT), Hand Surgery, Breast Reconstruction with Fatgrafting, Mesenchymal stem cell therapies – our golden Future?
License with the KMPDB / AKUH in Kenya
The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board (KMPDB) have licensed me to practice in Kenya with a temporary license for foreign doctors since 2013, allowing me to practice my specialty. This license has been renewed on a yearly basis, without interruptions.
My clinical privileges and admitting rights to The Aga Khan University Hospital Nairobi (AKUH) have also been renewed consistently every 2 years.
During my tenor at the AKUH I was part of a multidisciplinary team of Specialists who performed the first ever microsurgical breast reconstruction following breast amputation (mastectomy) for breast cancer using microsurgical free flap surgery (DIEP flap surgery). We have since performed this operation on more than 10 patients, allowing them to lead a normal life with near normal female anatomy / breasts after surviving breast cancer. During most of these operations, we were assisted by local surgical residents who benefitted by us teaching them this highly specialized technique, which had never been performed in Eastern Africa before. We presented this achievement at the Annual Scientific Conference 2019, Surgical Society of Kenya, April 2019 Mombasa, Kenya:
Advances in breast surgery: Deep inferior epigastric perforator flaps (DIEP) after Nipple and Skin sparing mastectomies
Miriam Mutebi, Tilman Stasch, Radovan Boca
Annual Scientific Conference 2019, Surgical Society of Kenya, April 2019 Mombasa, Kenya (co-author)
At the AKUH I am regularly involved in reconstructive operations for complex trauma (war injuries, accidents, tumors), as well as chronic ulcers, pressure sores, decubitus ulcers, bed sores and complex wounds that need reconstruction, as well as specialist hand surgical reconstructions, nerve and tendon repairs, congenital abnormalities, and together with the colleagues from Orthopedics, soft tissue reconstructions using local, regional and free tissue transplantations. I am using my expertise and experience gained during many years of working in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at British and German University Hospitals, to benefit Kenyan Patients, and passing on my knowledge by teaching the local residents.
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