Such incredible work by Global Paedsurg! CDH International is very honored to be listed as an author on this incredibly important paper in The Lancet.
The full article can be accessed free of charge in The Lancet: https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0140-6736(21)00767-4
From CDHi Medical Advisory Board Member, Naomi Wright:
Breaking news – Global PaedSurg study results just published in The Lancet.
Results show unacceptable differences in survival for babies born with birth defects depending on where you are born in the world.
Newborns in low-income countries born with a birth defect affecting the intestinal tract have a two in five chance of dying, compared to one in five in middle-income countries and one in twenty in high-income countries.
Gastroschisis, a condition where the baby is born with their intestines protruding through a hole in the abdomen, had the greatest difference in mortality with 90% dying in low-income countries compared to 1% in high-income countries. This is a condition where the majority of babies go on to live a full life with minimal disability in high-income countries.
Urgent action is required to improve neonatal surgical care in low- and middle-income countries globally.
This involves:
1) improving antenatal diagnosis so babies can be born at a centre with surgical care available.
2) improving resuscitation of neonates born with surgical conditions at district hospitals with early transfer to a paediatric surgical centre.
3) improved perioperative care (including resuscitation, access to ventilation and intravenous nutrition when required) at the hospital providing children’s surgical care.
Without urgent action to improve access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs, it will be impossible to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 to ‘end preventable deaths in neonates and children under 5 by 2030’.
