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Patient Experience and Outcomes of the Locally Organized ApriDec Medical Outreach Group

  • Surgery in Low and Middle Income Countries
  • Published:
World Journal of Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Access to safe and effective surgery is limited in low and middle-income countries. Short-term surgical missions are a common platform to provide care, but the few published outcomes suggest unacceptable morbidity and mortality. We sought to study the safety and effectiveness of the ApriDec Medical Outreach Group (AMOG).

Methods

Data from the December 2017 and April 2018 outreaches were prospectively collected. Patient demographics, characteristics of surgery, complications of surgery, and patient quality of life were collected preoperatively and on postoperative days 15 and 30. Data were analyzed to determine complication rates and trends in quality of life.

Results

260/278 (93.5%) of patients completed a 30-day follow-up. Of these, surgical site infection was the most common complication (8.0%), followed by hematoma (4.1%). Rates of urinary tract infection were 1.2% while all other complications occurred in less than 1% of patients. There were no mortalities. With increasing time after surgery (0 to 15 days to 30 days), there was a significant improvement across each of the dimensions of quality of life (p < 0.001). All patients reported satisfaction with their procedure.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that the care provided by AMOG group to the underserved populations of northern Ghana, yielded complication rates similar to others in low-resourced communities, leading to improved quality of life.

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Acknowledgements

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Center for Global Surgery, University of Utah, 30 N 1900 E, Rm 3B110 SOM, Salt Lake City, UT, 84103, USA

    Micah G. Katz & Raymond R. Price

  2. Department of Surgery, School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Tamale Teaching Hospital, University for Development Studies, P.O. Box TL 1350, Tamale, Ghana

    Stephen Tabiri & Francis A. Abantanga

  3. Department of Surgery, School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University Post Office, Private Mail Bag, Kumasi, Ghana

    Adam Gyedu

Authors
  1. Micah G. Katz
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  2. Stephen Tabiri
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  3. Adam Gyedu
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  4. Raymond R. Price
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  5. Francis A. Abantanga
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Contributions

MK, ST, RP, and FA designed the study and facilitated collection of data. AG performed statistical analysis. MK, ST, AG, RP and FA contributed to drafting the manuscript and provided critical revision for important intellectual content.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Micah G. Katz.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study received approval by both the Ghana Health Service and University of Utah Institutional Review board committees.

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Katz, M.G., Tabiri, S., Gyedu, A. et al. Patient Experience and Outcomes of the Locally Organized ApriDec Medical Outreach Group. World J Surg 44, 1039–1044 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-019-05288-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-019-05288-1

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