Objective To assess the strabismus prevalence and associated factors among children aged ≤15 years. Methods This hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2017 to October 2017 in the Department of Ophthalmology & Optometry, Hawassa University Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect relevant data and clinical examinations were performed for patient diagnosis. Results Overall, 582 children participated in the study (response rate, 97%). The prevalence of childhood strabismus was 17.9% [95% confidence interval: 14.6–21.1]. Additionally, 9.6%, 16.7%, and 9.6% of the children had anisometropia, amblyopia, and dense cataract, respectively. Among the 16.7% of children with amblyopia, 56.7% had strabismus; among the 22.5% of children with clinically significant refractive error, 52.7% had strabismus. Moreover, among the 9.6% of children with anisometropia, 58.9% had strabismus. The presence of amblyopia (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 3.9, 1.7–8.6), age <5 years (13.5 [5.0–36.1]), age 5 to 10 years (6.1 [2.3–16.3]), and clinically significant refractive error (13.3 [5.8–30.6]) were significantly associated with childhood strabismus. Conclusions The prevalence of strabismus was relatively high among patients in this study. Early screening for childhood strabismus is essential. A well-controlled community-based study is needed to confirm strabismus prevalence and predictors.

Background: Perioperative mortality rate is the basic indicator of anesthesia and surgery safety in a country of health policy. However, documentation is poor in low and middle income countries. So we developed a simple prospective data collection tool for perioperative mortality determination at Tibebe Ghion Specialized Teaching Hospital, Ethiopia. Material and methods: The prospective electronic based data collection was done at Tibebe Ghion Specialized Teaching Hospital, Ethiopia with case specific of perioperative data. We compared patients with mortality at 24 h, and 48 h by Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival analysis. Logistic regression model was used to evaluate the effect of different surgical procedures on mortality. Results: From August 2019, to December 2019 data were taken from 946 cases at Tibebe Ghion Specialized Teaching Hospital. We excluded 61 (6.44%) cases with missing data information. The logistic regression analysis for 24 h mortality showed that urology and general surgery (OR = 8.03 [95% CI, 3.98 to 47.33]; P = 0.0002),neurosurgery (OR = 4.77, [95% CI,2.58–17.70]; P = 0.01), orthopedics (OR = 1.21, [95% CI,0.56–6.89]; P = 0.003), emergency surgery (OR = 2.76 [95% CI,1.03–10.51]; P = 0.04) and trauma (OR = 6.94 [95% CI,3.43–26.32]; P = 0.002) were associated with high risk of mortality (Table 3) as compared to cesarean section delivery. These significant relations were also revealed at 48 h of mortality. Other Surgeries and pediatrics category were not correlated to 24 h and 48 h of mortality. Conclusion and recommendation: There were a significant higher magnitude of mortality recorded over Urology and general surgeries, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, emergency surgery and trauma compared with cesarean section delivery at Tibebe Ghion Specialized Teaching Hospital. In addition, we observed the mortality rate differences between each surgical category. Tibebe Ghion Specialized Teaching Hospital should emphasis on monitoring and evaluation of patients’ outcome for the reduction of mortality. We also recommended doing this research work at multiple centers of referral hospitals for better valid information. Highlights:

BACKGROUND: Limited data exist concerning how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected surgical care in low-resource settings. We sought to describe associations between the COVID-19 pandemic and surgical care and outcomes at 2 tertiary hospitals in Ethiopia. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study analyzing perioperative data collected electronically from Ayder Comprehensive Specialized Hospital (ACSH) in Mekelle, Ethiopia, and Tibebe Ghion Specialized Hospital (TGSH) in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. We categorized COVID-19 exposure as time periods: "phase 0" before the