Surgery

2 billion people around the world lack access to basic surgery, but not enough is known about operative care in low-resource settings—especially in Africa, which has perhaps the greatest unmet need.

Back in August, Yusra Ribhi Shawar and colleagues provided an analysis of factors preventing surgery from becoming a global health priority in the Lancet Global Health. They underscored the need to find consensus on training and supervising non-surgeons to deliver surgical…

A lucrative black market is meeting the demand for kidneys in Bangladesh, where at least 2,000 people need transplants annually, but donation is only legal between living relatives.  Many in poor farming areas sell kidneys to raise cash—one woman was paid $4,500—by easily…

By Tigistu A Ashengo When I return home to Ethiopia, I look forward to visiting my grandparents’ house to reconnect with uncles, aunts and cousins with whom I share a closeness that belies my bi-continental life. Growing up in Addis Ababa, I spent my summers at my…

Little attention is paid to the public provision of surgery in modern India, even though it’s a cost-effective method of improving health care, note Sristi Sharma and Joshua Ng-Kamstra of Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Surgery and Social Change.

Approximately 5 of the world’s 7 billion people have no or little access to basic surgical care. Injuries alone cause 5.7 million deaths yearly, much more than the 3.8 million deaths caused by malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined. Many of these fatal injuries could…

Greater access to surgical care in developing countries could prevent 1.5 million deaths a year, according to Essential Surgery, the first of nine volumes in the new Disease Control Priorities (DCP) 3 series. Basic surgeries, such as setting broken bones or delivering…

Safe and affordable surgery is out of reach for 93% of people in sub-Saharan Africa, a panel of experts report in The Lancet. Their worldwide data illuminates the abyss between surgical needs and what is actually available, especially in low- and middle-income countries,…

Even before Saturday’s earthquake, Nepal had significant unmet needs for surgery and access to care. In 2014, 10% of the population required surgery and 23% of deaths were potentially avoidable with proper access to surgical care, according to a new study in the British…

1.5 million lives could be saved annually in developing countries by basic surgeries according to Essential Surgery, the first of 9 volumes about disease control priorities published recently by the World Bank Group.