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Pediatric neurosurgical bellwether procedures for infrastructure capacity building in hospitals and healthcare systems worldwide

  • A.J. Raimondi ISPN Award
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Quantifying the global burden of pediatric neurosurgical disease—and current efforts addressing it—is challenging, particularly in the absence of uniform terminology. We sought to establish bellwether procedures for pediatric neurosurgery, in order to standardize terminology, establish priorities, and facilitate goal-oriented capacity building.

Methods

Members of international pediatric neurosurgical and pediatric surgical societies were surveyed via the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) platform. Among 15 proposed neurosurgical procedures, respondents assigned numerical grades of surgical necessity and selected hospital-level designation within a three-tiered system. A procedure was considered a bellwether if (a) the majority of respondents deemed it necessary for either a primary- or secondary-level hospital and (b) the procedure was graded at or above the 90th percentile on a continuous scale of essentiality. Data were compiled and analyzed using Stata software.

Results

Complete responses were obtained from 459 surgeons from 76 countries, the majority of whom practiced in a tertiary referral hospital (88%), with a primarily public patient population (64%). Six bellwether procedures were identified for pediatric neurosurgery: shunt for hydrocephalus, myelomeningocele closure, burr holes, trauma craniotomy, external ventricular drain (EVD) insertion, and cerebral abscess evacuation. Few differences in bellwether criteria designations were observed among respondents from different World Health Organization regions and World Bank income groups.

Conclusions

The six bellwether procedures identified can be used as markers of infrastructure capacity at various hospital levels, hence allowing targeted neurosurgical capacity-building in low-resource settings in order to avert disability and death from childhood neurosurgical disease.

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Abbreviations

AFR:

African region

AMR-LA:

American region—Latin America

AMR-US/C:

American region—United States and Canada

CT:

computed tomography

EESC:

Emergency and Essential Surgical Care

EMR:

Eastern Mediterranean region

ETV:

endoscopic third ventriculostomy

EUR:

European region

HICs:

high-income countries

LICs:

low-income countries

LIC/MICs:

low- and middle-income countries

LMICs:

lower middle-income countries

MRI:

magnetic resonance imaging

SEAR:

South-East Asian region

UMICs:

upper middle-income countries

VPS:

ventriculoperitoneal shunt

WHO:

World Health Organization

WPR:

Western Pacific region

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Archit Potharazu for his graphical expertise and assistance with the pictorial display of data within this manuscript.

Funding

REDcap use and management is funded by Institute for Clinical and Translational Research grant support (UL1 TR000445 from NCATS/NIH).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurological Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, T-4224 Medical Center North, Nashville, TN, 37232-2380, USA

    Michael C. Dewan & Christopher M. Bonfield

  2. Department of Anatomy, University of the Philippines College of Medicine, Manila, Philippines

    Ronnie E. Baticulon

  3. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Krishnan Ravindran

  4. Department of Pediatric Surgery, McGill University Health Centre and Montréal Children’s Hospital, Montréal, Canada

    Dan Poenaru

  5. Great Ormond Street Hospital, Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK

    William Harkness

Authors
  1. Michael C. Dewan
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  2. Ronnie E. Baticulon
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  3. Krishnan Ravindran
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  4. Christopher M. Bonfield
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  5. Dan Poenaru
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  6. William Harkness
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Correspondence to Michael C. Dewan.

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Dewan, M.C., Baticulon, R.E., Ravindran, K. et al. Pediatric neurosurgical bellwether procedures for infrastructure capacity building in hospitals and healthcare systems worldwide. Childs Nerv Syst 34, 1837–1846 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-018-3902-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00381-018-3902-y

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