Rural Surgery in Niger: A Multicentric Study in 21 District Hospitals

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the qualitative aspect and global impact of surgery in a district hospital (DH) since the launching of the surgery at the district level. Surgical care was provided by general practitioners (GP) who received 12-month training in surgery, certified by a “Capac...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Indian journal of surgery 2015-12, Vol.77 (Suppl 3), p.822-826
Main Authors: Sani, Rachid, Sanoussi, Samuila, Didier, James Lassey, Salifou, Garba Mohamed, Abarchi, Habibou
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cardiac Surgery
Health aspects
Hernia
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Neurosurgery
Original
Original Article
Pediatric Surgery
Plastic Surgery
Rural health care
Surgery
Teaching methods
Thoracic Surgery
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of the study was to evaluate the qualitative aspect and global impact of surgery in a district hospital (DH) since the launching of the surgery at the district level. Surgical care was provided by general practitioners (GP) who received 12-month training in surgery, certified by a “Capacity of District Surgery” (CDS) diploma. It was a prospective study during 4 years from 2007 to 2010. Of the 34 DHs, only 21 were functional and included in this study. Most of the DHs had two or more CDS ( n  = 15). The majority of the DHs had one nurse surgical aid ( n  = 16) and one nurse anesthetist ( n  = 17). The total number of surgical operations was 18,441 cases; emergency cases represented 51.8 % and elective surgery 48.2 %. Regarding emergency surgery, cesarean sections revealed the most common surgical procedure (37.21 %), followed by wound debridement (19.42 %). In elective surgery, hernia repair and hydrocelectomy were the most common surgical procedures (69.60 %), followed by gynecologic procedures in 12.74 % of the cases. The global complication rate was 4.34 %. The global mortality rate was 1.04 % ( n  = 192), 102 deaths following cesarean section (2.87 %). No death was encountered in elective surgery. Nine hundred and fifty-five patients (5.17 %) were transferred to a higher-level facility of whom 598 patients (62.61 %) were admitted for fracture treatment. The concept of district surgery has proven to be an effective tool to counter skilled medical manpower shortage to perform emergency and elective basic surgery at the rural level and could be adopted by developing countries facing similar health challenges.
ISSN:0972-2068
0973-9793
DOI:10.1007/s12262-013-1015-0