The Pan-African Surgical Healthcare Forum: An African qualitative consensus propagating continental national surgical healthcare policies and plans.

Access to equitable, safe, affordable, timely, and quality surgical healthcare in Africa remains limited. Few African countries have surgical healthcare plans or policies. Where these exist, there are significant gaps in dissemination, funding, and implementation.

Strengthening surgical healthcare research capacity in sub-Saharan Africa: impact of a research training programme in Nigeria.

Background: Limited research capacity has contributed to the lack of high-quality research from low-and middle-income countries. This is compounded by limited research training opportunities. Research capacity scale-up training was deployed as part of the implementation of the National Surgical, Obstetrics, Anaesthesia, and Nursing Plan for Nigeria.

Children's surgery and the emergency, critical, and operative care resolution: immediate actions to eliminate disparities in surgical anesthesia and perioperative care for all children.

1.7 billion children lack access to surgical care worldwide. The emergency, critical, and operative care (ECO) resolution represents a call to action to reinvigorate the efforts to address these disparities.

Children's surgery and the emergency, critical, and operative care resolution: Immediate actions to eliminate disparities in surgery, anesthesia, and perioperative care for all children.

Around 1.7 billion children lack access to surgical care worldwide. To reinvigorate the efforts to address these disparities and support work to address global challenges in surgery, anesthesia, emergency, and critical care, the World Health Assembly passed World Health Organization Resolution World Health Assembly 76.

Global children's surgery: Economic and policy priorities.

An estimated two-thirds of the world's children and adolescents, most of whom live in low- and middle- income countries lack access to safe, quality, and timely surgical care. While much efforts have been made in the last decade to advocate for children' surgery, several economic and policy gaps remain, hampering progress and investments. These gaps range from lack of adequate data on costs and cost-effectiveness, high rate of out-of-pocket payments and limited health insurance coverage, to non-inclusion of children's surgical care in public child health policies and surgical plans.

Advocating for children's surgery within country health plans: lessons from Nigeria and the global stage.

Background: Despite the growing emphasis on provision of quality safe and affordable surgical care in low- and middle-income countries, and the World Health Assembly resolution 68. 15 on strengthening emergency and essential surgical care and anesthesia as components of universal health coverage, a review of published surgical plans of various countries, revealed a lack of emphasis on children's surgery. Due to the peculiarities of the human resource, infrastructure and equipment required for children's surgery, a lack of deliberate actions and policies targeted at strengthening surgical care for children implies that achieving universal health coverage for children may not be a reality in this setting.

National Surgical Healthcare Policy Development and Implementation: Where do We Stand in Africa?

Background: National surgical policies have been increasingly adopted by African countries over the past decade. This report is intended to provide an overview of the current state of adoption of national surgical healthcare policies in Africa, and to draw a variety of lessons from representative surgical plans in order to support transnational learning.

Methods: Through a desk review of available African national surgical healthcare plans and written contributions from a committee comprising six African surgical policy development experts, a few key lessons from five healthcare plans were outlined and iteratively reviewed.

Academic global surgical competencies: A modified Delphi consensus study.

Academic global surgery is a rapidly growing field that aims to improve access to safe surgical care worldwide. However, no universally accepted competencies exist to inform this developing field. A consensus-based approach, with input from a diverse group of experts, is needed to identify essential competencies that will lead to standardization in this field.

Routine Pediatric Surgical Emergencies: Incidence, Morbidity, and Mortality During the 1st 8000 Days of Life-A Narrative Review.

Background: Many potentially treatable non-congenital and non-traumatic surgical conditions can occur during the first 8000 days of life and an estimated 85% of children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will develop one before 15 years old. This review summarizes the common routine surgical emergencies in children from LMICs and their effects on morbidity and mortality.

Methods: A narrative review was undertaken to assess the epidemiology, treatment, and outcomes of common surgical emergencies that present within the first 8000 days (or 21.

Surgically Correctable Congenital Anomalies: Reducing Morbidity and Mortality in the First 8000 Days of Life.

Background: Congenital anomalies are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. We aimed to review the common surgically correctable congenital anomalies with recent updates on the global disease burden and identify the factors affecting morbidity and mortality.

Method: A literature review was done to assess the burden of surgical congenital anomalies with emphasis on those that present within the first 8000 days of life.

From research to a political commitment to strengthen access to surgical, obstetric, and anesthesia care in Africa by 2030.

Objective: This study aimed to engage African leaders and key stakeholders to commit themselves toward the strengthening of surgical, obstetric, and anesthesia care systems by 2030 in Africa.

Methods: From research to a political commitment, a baseline assessment was performed to foster the identification of the gaps in surgical care as a first step of an inclusive process. The preliminary findings were discussed during the International Symposium on Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Systems Strengthening by 2030 in Africa.

Biliary Atresia Splenic Malformation: A Case Report from A Tertiary Centre in West Africa and the Lessons Learnt.

Biliary atresia (BA) is a rare disease characterised by biliary obstruction of unknown origin that presents in the neonatal period. It is classified into syndromic with various congenital anomalies and non-syndromic (isolated anomaly). We present a case of syndromic BA associated with polysplenia and intestinal malrotation, discovered incidentally during the Kasai procedure.

Screening methods for congenital anomalies in low and lower-middle income countries: A systematic review.

Introduction: Surgically correctable congenital anomalies are responsible for a significant burden of morbidity and mortality in children from low-and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Early identification through fetal and neonatal screening is critical to reducing death and disability. This study aims to identify feasible screening methods for surgically correctable congenital anomalies in LMICs.

Preputial cyst in the newborn: A case report from Africa.

Cysts of the prepuce are rare, and documented reports from the English literature are mostly from Asia. Presentations in children are worrisome to the parents. We report a case of a preputial cyst occurring in a neonate who was brought to our facility due to parental anxiety.

Picture Cards Versus Physical Examination: A Proof-of-Concept Study to Improve the SOSAS Survey Tool.

Introduction: The Surgeons OverSeas Assessment of Surgical Needs (SOSAS) survey tool is used to determine the unmet surgical needs in the community and has been validated in several countries. A major weakness is the absence of an objective assessment to verify patient-reported surgically treatable conditions. The goal of this study was to determine whether a picture portfolio, a tool previously shown to improve parental recognition of their child's congenital deformity, could improve the accuracy of the SOSAS tool by how it compares with physical examination.

Evaluation of the effect of nutritive versus non-nutritive pacifiers as adjuncts to local anaesthesia in male neonatal circumcision using the plastibell technique - A prospective randomised controlled study.

Background: Male circumcision is the most common surgical procedure worldwide and is often carried out for religious, cultural, medical and public health reasons. It is commonly performed during the neonatal period. Many studies have now shown that pain is a common intra- and post-operative complication.

Impact of corona virus disease 2019 pandemic on paediatric surgery in a sub-saharan tertiary hospital: An observational study.

Background: The impact of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on global health, has reached far beyond that caused by the disease itself. With ongoing mutations and the emergence of new strains of the virus alongside repeated waves of the pandemic, the full impact of the pandemic is still evolving and remains difficult to predict or evaluate. In paediatric surgery, it has led to significant disruptions in patient care, the extent and consequence of which are not fully documented in Nigeria.

Cholelithiasis in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease: Experience in a resource-limited setting.

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) remains prevalent in Nigeria and can be complicated by cholelithiasis even in children. There is still a dearth of knowledge about the occurrence of cholelithiasis in these children. The present study is aimed to determine the prevalence of cholelithiasis in pediatric SCD in Lagos and documents relevant socio-demographic and clinical correlates.

A 5-year multidisciplinary care outcomes in children with wilms' tumour managed at a tertiary centre: A retrospective observational study.

Background: Over the last two decades, there has been significant improvement in the outcomes of children with Wilms' tumour (WT) in high income countries (HICs) with approximately 85% survival rate globally. This is partly attributable to a multi-disciplinary team approach to care and the evolution of more robust treatment measures. A previous review in our centre prior to multi-disciplinary team shows a survival rate of 31.

National surgical, obstetric, anaesthesia and nursing plan, Nigeria.

Recent evidence suggests that strengthening surgical care within existing health systems will strengthen the overall health-care system. However, Nigeria's national strategic health development plan 2018-2022 placed little emphasis on surgical care. To address the gap, we worked with professional societies and other partners to develop the national surgical, obstetric, anaesthesia and nursing plan 2019-2023.

Inclusion of Children's Surgery in National Surgical Plans and Child Health Programmes: the need and roadmap from Global Initiative for Children's Surgery.

About 1.7 billion children and adolescents, mostly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) lack access to surgical care. While some of these countries have developed surgical plans and others are in the process of developing theirs, children's surgery has not received the much-needed specific emphasis and focus in these plans.