La Chaîne de l’Espoir and child neurosurgery in Cambodia

La Chaîne de l’Espoir has been present in Cambodia since the 2000s to develop children’s surgery, particularly in the field of cardiac surgery. Since 2012, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has been providing its expertise to strengthen the skills of cardiology and cardiac surgery teams in the Kantha Bopha Foundation hospitals in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Over time and at the request of our partner, the Kantha Bopha Hospital Foundation, La Chaîne de l’Espoir has extended its support to neurosurgery.

In August 2019, the Kantha Bopha hospital in Phnom Penh acquired a new building with a high-performance, high-quality technical platform, enabling the development of this specialty.

The opening of this new unit led to the implementation of a training plan for local teams in neurosurgery, neurosurgical resuscitation and traumatology.

Each year, two missions led by top-level volunteer surgeons are scheduled to help local teams improve their mastery of complex surgical techniques, with the aim of helping them become self-sufficient.

During the previous mission, in May 2022, 14 small patients were operated on over a 14-day period, the oldest of whom was 15 years old.

In addition to this companionship, on-line exchanges with French specialists take place on a regular basis to refine diagnoses of complex cases of children with neurosurgical pathologies.

Dr. Beat RICHNER, founder of the Kantha Bopha Hospital Foundation, opened his 1st pediatric hospital in 1992. To date, 5 hospitals in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh have been opened, providing free care for 85% of Cambodia’s sick children in need of treatment, hospitalization or surgery. Dr. Beat Richner passed away in 2018; Dr. Denis Laurent has since been the director of the Kantha Bopha hospitals.

La Chaîne de l’Espoir is an international NGO founded in 1994 and present in nearly 30 countries. Its mission is to strengthen healthcare systems to give everyone, especially children, the same chances of survival and development.