Surgical volume and postoperative mortality rate at a referral hospital in Western Uganda: Measuring the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery indicators in low-resource settings.

Background: The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery recommends that every country report its surgical volume and postoperative mortality rate. Little is known, however, about the numbers of operations performed and the associated postoperative mortality rate in low-income countries or how to best collect these data.

Methods: For one month, every patient who underwent an operation at a referral hospital in western Uganda was observed.