You are more likely to die from a surgery in African, report says

pulse-ghana admin 12:16 - 04 January 2018

Patients undergoing surgery in Africa stand a higher risk of losing their lives due to lack of human resource

Patients in Africa stand a higher risk of losing their lives during surgeries, a research finding published in the Lancet Medical Journal has indicated.

Aside this, researchers say the most worrying revelation was just how few Africans have access surgeries that are scheduled in advance. The figure is 20 times lower than the demand.

"[The reason] that people do so terribly in Africa from a surgical point of view is that there are just no human resources," Prof Bruce Biccard, a co-author of the study from the University of Cape Town, said.

Prof Biccard however admitted that complications after surgeries are inevitable.

“It seems to be, no matter where in the world you have surgery, complications for many are an inevitable consequence of hospitalisation... Importantly, when complications occur there may be considerable disparity in patient outcomes after those complications: so it [often] isn’t the complication that kills you, it is the failure to rescue – how [the patient is looked after following the complication],” he said.

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The report also said that, post-surgery survival rates are lower in Africa than the global average despite patients there being younger and lower risk, the report says. Patients in Africa also mostly undergo surgery that is "more minor" and have "fewer complications".

The research was conducted by 30 African researchers across 247 hospitals in 25 African countries.

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