Early outcome of facial reconstructive surgery abroad: a comparative study

Abstract

Every year, many medical missions are undertaken in the developing world but there is almost a universal lack of outcome data on the quality of these missions. The present study compares early clinical outcome and complication rate in two consecutive missions (facial reconstruction) undertaken to Ethiopia in 2007 and 2008. The object was to establish if measures adopted following feedback from the first mission led to improvement of the results. A significant improvement was observed in early clinical outcome and there were less severe complications in the 2008 compared to the 2007 mission. On both occasions, significantly more complications were experienced after complex compared to simple procedures. Despite improved outcome in 2008, 50% of the complex cases had an unfavourable clinical result. The data suggest that early outcome studies are a useful method of critically evaluating the quality of surgical mission. The unsatisfactory outcome of complex procedures underlines the need for feedback on the quality of these missions.

Charitable Platforms in Global Surgery: A Systematic Review of their Effectiveness, Cost‐Effectiveness, Sustainability, and Role Training

“…and Huijing et al [66]. find this pattern, which combined with Maine’s findings above [53], leads them to recommend against short-term surgical missions for any but the simplest conditions [65, 66]. …”

An Evaluation of the Value of Plastic Surgery Mission Trips in Resident Education by Attending Physicians

“…In addition, data suggest that there remains a need for feedback on and critical evaluation of the quality of mission trips to improve the outcome of surgical procedures. 7 To standardize resident education and improve quality of care, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has outlined a set of guidelines. These guidelines mandate overseas programs to have local authority approval as well as adequate supportive units such as anesthetic and laboratories, critical care infrastructure, proper follow-up care, and certified on-site staff.…”

A prospective observational study of postoperative follow‐ups and outcomes at a nonprofit, internationally supported pediatric surgery center in Guatemala

“…This low rate of anemia in the operated patients is due to the Moore Center's process of postponing any patient with a preoperative hemoglobin level of less than 10 g/dL (due to no blood immediately available in elective procedures and anemia being a possible sign of malnutrition) until the next mission trip of the same specialty and prescribing supplemental iron. Additionally, avoidance of high complexity procedures during surgical tours has been shown to improve outcomes . The diagnoses for procedures performed (Table ) and volume of cases seen at the Moore Center combined with the sophisticated infrastructure may create an environment that is well equipped to manage a broad range of surgical patients and prevent potential complications in an ambulatory surgery type of setting.…”