Logistics of surgical missions during the war in Ukraine: lessons learned

Providing surgical care for children living in warzones is a unique and complex issue. One solution to this problem is the delivery of surgical care through surgical/medical missions. However, significant issues exist when carried out in countries experiencing war or humanitarian crisis, including further stress placed on strained health systems, lack of availability of local resources to provide necessary support, and safety considerations for staff and patients. We describe our experience planning and carrying out a surgical mission to provide burn and reconstructive care to Ukrainian children by completing the surgeries in a nearby country, Poland. The necessary planning and logistics of such a mission are complex, including: patient recruitment, screening, selection, transportation between multiple countries, language and cultural barriers between medical teams as well as with patients, involvement of multiple governmental agencies, and facilitating appropriate follow-up care. However, this approach is worth exploring as it may carry some benefits in terms of resource utilization and complexity of care that is able to be provided.