Scotch College

Reshaping lives - at the turn of a screw

Andrew Heggie (left) pictured in Bangladesh with a young maxillofacial surgery patient, the childŐs mother, and a Bangladeshi medical professor.

It's just a small metal device that looks as if it would be more at home among a box of screws in your garden shed. Its name, 'distractor', sounds more agricultural than surgical.

But by using this small metal object and a tonne of dedication and skill, maxillofacial surgeon and Old Scotch Collegian Andrew Heggie ('72) is bringing hope of a normal life to children born with facial abnormalities. These abnormalities often mean that the children must breathe through tubes and be fed through stomach tubes.

The devices, surgically implanted in the child's jaw, are twin 8cm rods with threads like screws and bolt-like ends, which protrude through the child's chin or mouth. The rods are rotated manually once or twice a day, as if tightening a screw or bolt, thereby extending the bones of the child's jaw by up to 1mm a day. The rods are removed when the child's jaw is extended to a satisfactory length and the new bone is firm.

He or she can then breathe and eat like any other child, and facial surgery in teenage years can help to normalise any distorted facial features.

Andrew told Great Scot that the use of distractors, first reported in the US about 12 years ago, is just one aspect of maxillofacial surgery. 'As well as correcting congenital problems of the face and jaws (that is, abnormalities existing from birth), we treat facial injuries and acquired pathology,' he said.

'Maxillofacial surgery is really a hybrid medical/dental specialty, which requires about nine years of study after the primary degree,' Andrew said. 'So anyone entering the field must commit to an enormous amount of study and training. However, I certainly believe it's worth the effort, it's exciting, creative and most fulfilling work, and I love it.

'I've also had the chance to work overseas, particularly in Bangladesh and more recently in Indonesia. It's a fascinating and satisfying experience to work in these countries, observing and helping with interesting conditions and playing a part in developing the surgeons' skills.'

Andrew has been Head of Maxillofacial Surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital since 1994, and an Associate Surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital since 1987. He established the Melbourne Research Unit for Facial Disorders, and chairs the unit's Research Advisory Committee. Andrew has also written over 30 surgical publications, and has undertaken numerous research projects, the first one as an undergraduate student in 1977.

Looking to the future, Andrew envisages a surgical world where there will be less frequent transfer of hard and soft tissue, because of the emergence of tissue engineering, growing the needed tissue in laboratories.

All this work and travel doesn't leave much time for recreation, ('I admit I've been a workaholic,' Andrew says) but he makes time to relax with his family at their Lorne beach house where he swims and surfs. He also loves skiing and running, and supports the Demons in the AFL. 'I'm enjoying watching my rather spread-out family grow up, too,' he says. Andrew and wife Denise have three children, Katrina, 19, Andrew, 8, and Caroline, 4.

At school Andrew was a Cadet Under Officer and Pipe Major of the Pipe Band. He still plays the pipes occasionally, most recently at his mother's 90th birthday.

David Ashton