Abstract:Annual surgical specialty trips to rural, resource-limited regions are useful and worthwhile and offer procedures not otherwise available. On such trips, it is important to collect patient, surgical, and pathology data to help visiting surgeons determine the best procedures to teach local physicians and provide needed resources.
“…Within the short-term surgical trip category, trips ranged from three days to three months, with ten days and two weeks being the most common lengths. Twenty of the articles (71%) described short-term trips that recurred in the same location [ 12 , 21 , 25 , 27–32 , 34–37 , 39 , 41–44 , 46 , 47 ] (see Table A1 ). Figure 1.…”
Background
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces a critical shortage of pediatric surgical providers. International partnerships can play an important role in pediatric surgical capacity building but must be ethical and sustainable.
Objective
The purpose of this study is to perform a scoping literature review of international pediatric surgery partnerships in SSA from 2009 to 2019. We aim to categorize and critically assess past partnerships to aid in future capacity-building efforts.
Methods
We performed a scoping literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. We searched the PubMed and Embase databases for articles published from 2009 to 2019 using 24 keywords. Articles were selected according to inclusion criteria and assessed by two readers. Descriptive analyses of the data collected were conducted in Excel.
Results
A total of 2376 articles were identified. After duplicates were removed, 405 articles were screened. In total, 83 articles were assessed for eligibility, and 62 were included in the review. The most common partnership category was short-term surgical trip (28 articles, 45%). A total of 35 articles (56%) included education of host country providers as part of the partnership. Only 45% of partnerships included follow-up care, and 50% included postoperative outcomes when applicable.
Conclusions
To increase sustainability, more partnerships must include education of local health-care providers, and short-term surgical trips must be integrated into long-term partnerships. More partnerships need to report postoperative outcomes and ensure follow-up care. Educating peri-operative providers, training general surgeons in common pediatric procedures, and increasing telehealth use are other goals for future partnerships.
“…Within the short-term surgical trip category, trips ranged from three days to three months, with ten days and two weeks being the most common lengths. Twenty of the articles (71%) described short-term trips that recurred in the same location [ 12 , 21 , 25 , 27–32 , 34–37 , 39 , 41–44 , 46 , 47 ] (see Table A1 ). Figure 1.…”
Background
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces a critical shortage of pediatric surgical providers. International partnerships can play an important role in pediatric surgical capacity building but must be ethical and sustainable.
Objective
The purpose of this study is to perform a scoping literature review of international pediatric surgery partnerships in SSA from 2009 to 2019. We aim to categorize and critically assess past partnerships to aid in future capacity-building efforts.
Methods
We performed a scoping literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. We searched the PubMed and Embase databases for articles published from 2009 to 2019 using 24 keywords. Articles were selected according to inclusion criteria and assessed by two readers. Descriptive analyses of the data collected were conducted in Excel.
Results
A total of 2376 articles were identified. After duplicates were removed, 405 articles were screened. In total, 83 articles were assessed for eligibility, and 62 were included in the review. The most common partnership category was short-term surgical trip (28 articles, 45%). A total of 35 articles (56%) included education of host country providers as part of the partnership. Only 45% of partnerships included follow-up care, and 50% included postoperative outcomes when applicable.
Conclusions
To increase sustainability, more partnerships must include education of local health-care providers, and short-term surgical trips must be integrated into long-term partnerships. More partnerships need to report postoperative outcomes and ensure follow-up care. Educating peri-operative providers, training general surgeons in common pediatric procedures, and increasing telehealth use are other goals for future partnerships.
“…The short-term goal is to provide immediate care and the long-term goal is to train local physicians. 2 Planning of surgical medical mission trips requires a great deal of preparation before arrival on the parts of both the local and the traveling medical teams. Other than collection of required surgical supplies, a critical part of the trip is recruiting appropriate medical personnel to facilitate the surgical procedures, which generally consist of surgery, anesthesia, and nursing staff.…”
Section: Utility Of Cytopathology In Complimenting Surgical Medical Mission Tripsmentioning
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“…Resource allocation and the utilization of free flap surgery in humanitarian settings has been reported by groups describing their individual experiences without a consensus of how multiple groups view their outreach, decisions, and outcomes 4‐8 . We set out to better understand the preparation, surgical, and ethical considerations of US‐based head and neck surgeons who have established programs of service and teaching in low‐resource nations.…”
Background
Head and neck surgical oncology and reconstruction are uniquely suited to address burdens of disease in underserved areas. Since these efforts are not well known in our specialty, we sought to understand global outreach throughout our society of surgeons.
Methods
Survey distributed to members of the American Head and Neck Surgery involved in international humanitarian head and neck surgical outreach trips.
Results
Thirty surgeons reported an average of seven trips to over 70 destinations. Identification of candidates, finances, on‐site patient care, complications, long‐term post‐surgical care, ethics, and educational goals are reported. We report a success rate of 90% on 125 free flaps performed in these settings.
Conclusions
The effort to answer the call for alleviating the global burden of surgical disease is strong within our specialty. There is a shared focus on humanitarian effort and teaching. Ethics of high resource surgeries such as free flap reconstruction remains controversial.
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