Children's Craniofacial Surgery

Series following the surgeons of the Oxford Craniofacial Unit and the children, often with rare syndromes, they treat. The work can be risky but it transforms lives. Coral, aged one, has a rare genetic condition which distorts her skull and threatens to squeeze her brain. She needs an operation but surgery could also cause brain damage. Ivy is five; she was born with much of her skull missing, leaving her brain totally exposed. Her future care is a huge dilemma for her parents: should they opt for a major operation to build a new skull for her?; or should they just wait and see? Tiny baby Daire's skull is grossly mis-shapen but surgery carries a very high risk. This is a film about the risks of extreme surgery and how to decide when, and if, to operate.

This programme follows the surgeons of the Children's Hospital Oxford and their young patients with disfiguring conditions. Surgery can transform their faces and their life chances; but families often have mixed feelings about surgery that, though necessary, can make their child look quite different. Salina, aged seven, has Toulouse Lautrec syndrome. Her parents are told she needs major surgery to address the way her skull is constricting her brain and her breathing. But the operation will change her face radically. 'It won't change her temperament or her character - but it will alter her face' explains surgeon David Johnson. Harry is older, and has Moebius syndrome, giving him paralysis of the facial muscles. However cheerful he feels, he can't smile. His parents left the choice of surgery up to him, and now he's elected to have a major operation called 'smile surgery' to enable him to smile for the first time. In other cases, three-month-old Alfie is transformed by cleft lip surgery, and six-month-old Daisy has surgery to address the shape of her head.

This programme follows the surgeons of the Oxford Craniofacial Unit and their young patients with rare genetic syndromes. Finley has Apert syndrome, a tiny mutation in one gene that has had a radical effect on his bone growth, distorting his skull, hands and feet. He needs surgery to remodel his constricting skull, but operating so close to the brain brings its own risks. Ollie Cartright is 13; he has Pfeiffer syndrome and has needed a long series of operations. The unit is his second home; until the age of six or seven, he was in hospital most of the time. His friendship with his neurosurgeon Jay Jayamohan keeps him going through a new series of operations. Emma Campbell was a child patient at the unit; she has Apert syndrome. Now she has become the unit's first patient with Apert syndrome to become a mother. Her baby daughter Chloe begins treatment at the unit. 'People with Apert syndrome have often been seen as freak or mutant,' says Dr Anne Gorieli, 'but we need to completely rethink this. They just have one tiny spelling mistake in a gene which is different from yours.'