Media

Research team led by HKU Faculty of Dentistry wins major funding to surgically treat airway obstruction in children who have craniofacial deformities

06 Dec 2013

A team led by an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at the HKU Faculty of Dentistry has been awarded a grant of HK$4.26 million by the S.K. Yee Medical Foundation to perform a special type of bone surgery in infants and children to treat airway obstruction caused by skull or facial deformities. The multi-disciplinary team will hold a media briefing about the project on 10 December 2013 (Tuesday). A parent with her treated child patient will also be in attendance.

Partial or complete upper airway obstruction can occur in children because of craniofacial deformities, leading to difficulty in breathing (respiratory distress) or interrupted breathing during sleep (obstructive sleep apnoea).

Distraction osteogenesis will be used to treat the airway obstruction by correcting the underlying physical jaw and skull deformity. This biomedical engineering method uses appliances, called distractors, to lengthen bones by gradually stretching divided bone segments when an attached screw is turned each day. The process stimulates the generation of new bone between the segments and avoids the need for a bone graft transplant.

The grant will support the costs of various distractors needed to treat 36 children and infants with craniofacial deformities from financially challenged families, who will be recruited from the Queen Mary Hospital, United Christian Hospital, and Prince Philip Dental Hospital.

In the media briefing, the team leader, Prof Cheung Lim-kwong, Chair Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the HKU Faculty of Dentistry, and key team members, Prof Samuel MY Ho, Honorary Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the HKU Faculty of Dentistry and Associate Head from the Department of the Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, and Prof Colman McGrath, Clinical Professor in Dental Public Health of the HKU Faculty of Dentistry, will explain the research project in detail and show how distraction osteogenesis works, using distractors on skull models.

Media representatives are cordially invited to the media briefing. Details are as follows:
Date:  10 December 2013 (Tuesday)
Time:  11:00am
Venue:  Lounge, 7/F Prince Philip Dental Hospital, 34 Hospital Road, Sai Ying Pun
Medium: Mainly in Cantonese (one part in English will be translated in Cantonese)

Media contact:
Mr Oi-sing Au, Communications and Development Officer, Knowledge Exchange Unit, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Tel: 2859 0454; Email: singau@hku.hk

For more information about the HKU Faculty of Dentistry, please visit http://facdent.hku.hk; Facebook page: www.facebook.com/facdent