About 92 children and adults with cleft lip defect, across the country, are expected to undergo a corrective surgery at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) next week.

Cleft lip is a birth defect that occurs when the tissue that make up the lip of a baby does not join completely before birth, resulting in a small slit or large opening in the upper lip, sometimes extending into the nose.

A statement issued on Thursday and signed by Mr. Simmons Yussif Kewura, the Public Relations Officer of CCTH and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the surgery is an initiative of Operation Smile, an International children’s medical Non-Governmental Organisation from the United States of America.

It said the NGO, which was collaborating with the Ministry of Health and the CCTH on the project, specialized in performing safe, effective cleft lip and cleft palate surgery, and delivers postoperative and ongoing medical therapies to children in low and middle income countries.

It stated that Operation Smile was made up of 45 volunteers drawn from Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Sweden, Canada, United Kingdom, Egypt and Kenya.

The statement said the hospital, as part of its collaborative mandate, has dedicated three operation rooms for the seven day exercise, which began on April 13, The Hospital was also supporting the team with equipment and logistics for screening as well as nurses and administrative support.

It said the patients were currently being admitted into the hospital’s paediatric, male and female surgical wards.