His interest in pediatric plastic surgery recently prompted him to travel to Mexico City where he learned a surgical technique for creating a new jawbone distraction osteogenesis. So now when a child is born with only half a jawbone, it's possible to rebuild his face. A tremendous number of kids in the Lower Rio Grande Valley have congenital deformities. The procedure requires incisions of the mouth and jawbone. After the incisions are made an appliance is attached to both sides of the separated bone to maintain the separation or distraction.
New bone grows on the ends of the incised jawbone.
The Health Science Center is the only Texas site to offer this procedure. We do top-notch plastic and reconstructive surgery here, across the board. I'm proud of this institution for taking care of these children, and for using this type of technology, and for using all its services to help these kids. The surgery that's done on these children requires a whole group of people a plastic and maxillofacial surgeon, frequently a neurosurgeon, and Dr. Mark Pigno, in maxillofacial prosthetics, is involved. He's spectacular as good as anybody in the country.