We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress
Sign In
Advertise with Us

Download Mobile App




Surgical Patient Mortality Triple in Lower Income Countries

By HospiMedica International staff writers
Posted on 26 May 2016
Print article
Image: Statistics suggest that less than one-third of the world’s population has access to safe, timely and affordable surgery (Photo courtesy of GlobalSurg).
Image: Statistics suggest that less than one-third of the world’s population has access to safe, timely and affordable surgery (Photo courtesy of GlobalSurg).
Patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery in lower income countries have a three times greater chance of dying than in higher income countries, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom), the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom), and other institutions in the GlobalSurg Collaborative conducted a prospective, multicentre, cohort study involving 10,745 hospital patients from 357 medical centers in 58 participating countries who were monitored for up to 30 days after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery. The researchers monitored post-surgery death rates and mapped them against the Human Development Index (HDI) of each country.

Study participants included 6,538 patients from high HDI countries, 2,889 from middle HDI countries, and 1,318 from low-HDI countries. The overall mortality rate was 1.6% at 24 hours, but when separated by setting, the high HDI rate was 1.1%, the middle HDI rate was 1.9%, and the low HDI setting rate was 3.4%. This increased to 5.4% by 30 days (high 4.5%, middle 6%, low 8.6%. Of the 578 patients who died, 69.9% did so between 24 hours and 30 days following surgery, and was higher in middle-income and low-income countries. The study was published on May 4, 2016, in the British Journal of Surgery.

"Mortality is three times higher in low- compared with high-HDI countries, even when adjusted for prognostic factors. Patient safety factors may have an important role," concluded lead author Aneel Bhangu, MD, of the University of Birmingham, and colleagues. "The association between increasingly mortality and lower income countries might be explained by differences in prognosis, in treatment, or maybe both. What we can say is that our study highlights the significant disparity between countries, and an urgent need to address it."

GlobalSurg is an international collaboration of doctors that have developed a novel model of data collection largely using social media, based on a sharing platform accessible from smartphones and other mobile internet devices. This allows GlobalSurg members to collect data on real patients, at the bedside, and measure surgical outcomes in real-time. One of the findings was that surgical safety checklist use was less frequent in low- and middle-income countries, but when used it was associated with reduced mortality at 30 days.

Related Links:
University of Birmingham
University of Edinburgh
Gold Member
STI Test
Vivalytic Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Array
Gold Member
Real-Time Diagnostics Onscreen Viewer
GEMweb Live
Silver Member
Compact 14-Day Uninterrupted Holter ECG
NR-314P
New
Hysteroscopic Fluid Management System
HysteroFlow/HysteroBalance II

Print article

Channels

Critical Care

view channel
Image: The permeable wearable electronics developed for long-term biosignal monitoring (Photo courtesy of CityUHK)

Super Permeable Wearable Electronics Enable Long-Term Biosignal Monitoring

Wearable electronics have become integral to enhancing health and fitness by offering continuous tracking of physiological signals over extended periods. This monitoring is crucial for understanding an... Read more

Patient Care

view channel
Image: The newly-launched solution can transform operating room scheduling and boost utilization rates (Photo courtesy of Fujitsu)

Surgical Capacity Optimization Solution Helps Hospitals Boost OR Utilization

An innovative solution has the capability to transform surgical capacity utilization by targeting the root cause of surgical block time inefficiencies. Fujitsu Limited’s (Tokyo, Japan) Surgical Capacity... Read more

Health IT

view channel
Image: First ever institution-specific model provides significant performance advantage over current population-derived models (Photo courtesy of Mount Sinai)

Machine Learning Model Improves Mortality Risk Prediction for Cardiac Surgery Patients

Machine learning algorithms have been deployed to create predictive models in various medical fields, with some demonstrating improved outcomes compared to their standard-of-care counterparts.... Read more

Point of Care

view channel
Image: The PATHFAST hs-cTnI-II high-sensitivity troponin assay has been developed for the PATHFAST Biomarker Analyzer (Photo courtesy of Polymedco)

POC Myocardial Infarction Test Delivers Results in 17 Minutes

Chest pain is the second leading cause of emergency department (ED) visits by adults in the United States, generating over 7 million visits annually. In the event of a suspected heart attack, physicians... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2024 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.