Volunteer Surgical Camp at Gombe Hospital in Uganda

Abstract

(IUIU), in collaboration with Doctors Worldwide (DWW) from Turkey, organized a surgical camp in April 2014. In this camp, different types of hernia repair, among other general surgical procedures were conducted. The target population was the population within the Gombe hospital serving districts. Methods: The defined area for the surgical camp was Butambala and neighboring districts including Mpigi; Gomba, Mityana, and parts of Wakiso district. The IUIU team and Gombe hospital team were respectful to the sensitivities of the community, district and government officials. The surgical team composed of 4 surgeons (three from DWW-Turkey and one from Uganda), 3 Anesthesiologists, (two from DWW-Turkey and one from Uganda), 2 nurses and 2 intern doctor, (one from DWW-Turkey and one from Uganda). Results: The total number of patients operated was 115; however the total number of operations performed was 130. One hundred and fourteen operations were different types of hernia repair. The ages of hernia patients ranged between 1 and 80 years (mean±SD is 27.46±24.55). Hemoglobin values ranged between 9.2 and 17 (mean±SD is 12.5±1.48). Only two (1.8%) of 114 hernia patients had positive results on HIV serology. Sixteen patients underwent circumcision. Of those, only two (12.5%) patients had positive results on HIV serology. Conclusion: Hernia is a common surgical problem in all age groups. It is more common in men. In addition to the operations conducted, the need for surgery for 187 patients was detected. This condition shows that the hernia operation is commonly accepted as a negligible condition.

Global surgery: Improving health in low-income countries

“…As a team that has performed short-term "vertical" surgical services in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East for many years, we advocate seeking long-term solutions and implementing them without delay in order to achieve equality in global surgery 14,20,21 . However, surgery is also a primary healthcare service that includes the principles of preventive medicine and requires constant time and resource investment, and we believe that it cannot be provided effectively with such tasks.…”

The Analysis of Sub-saharan African Surgical Sublications

“…It is hard to maintain a stable source of finance in Africa due to lack of support of pharmaceutical companies, compared to western world. Before 60s African health system improved espcially with the aid of international contrubitions, but after indipendence 'brain drain' became the major problem of the system [10].…”

Surgical residency training program in Somalia: Outcomes of 8 years

“…6,[11][12][13] Surgical camps called 'vertical programs', which are mostly based on volunteerism, organised by high-income countries in low-income countries for a certain pathology and period of time are efficient, but eventually these missions provide only short-term solutions. 2,[14][15][16][17] However, surgery is also a primary healthcare service that includes the principles of preventive medicine and requires constant investment of time and resource, and it cannot be effectively provided with such short-term organisations. Therefore, the necessity of obtaining long-term results to increase the capacity and quality of the surgical workforce should not be ignored.…”