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The lack of access to laparoscopic surgery in Ethiopia is not due to scarcity of equipment. In fact, many hospitals have this technology, but it goes unused.

“There’s a gap between available equipment and the knowledge and skills for surgeons to start using this equipment to take care of patients,” says Dr David Jeffcoach, team co-lead for ALL-SAFE.

Team members from Ethiopia, Cameroon, and Kenya have designed an open-source module in which residents can learn how to perform laparoscopic surgery to treat ectopic pregnancy.

Guatemala lacks an organised, structured trauma system, and many first responders lack the necessary skills to manage bleeding in trauma victims before they reach the hospital. This is particularly critical in rural areas that lack urban trauma centres equipped to care for these patients.

“First responders and firefighters need to learn advanced tourniquet placement and haemorrhage control techniques,” explains Dr Sabrina Asturias, Chief of Emergency Surgery at Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City and team lead for CrashSavers.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a lack of surgeons specialised in plastic and reconstructive surgery. The result is that patients with trauma, burns, cancer, and congenital conditions suffer devastating physical and psychosocial consequences. Reconstructive flap surgery can restore form and function in these patients and give them an opportunity to participate more fully in society. In some cases, it can even increase their lifespan.

Nigeria, a country of nearly 200 million people, has only 350 orthopaedic surgeons. Patients with broken bones often end up in the hands of unscrupulous or untrained bone setters who use unsafe practices. This can result in gangrene, limb loss, and even death.

Dr Habila Amaru, an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon at the National Hospital Abuja, Nigeria, is leading a team to train non-orthopaedic specialists in safe fracture fixation.

“These skills can be used to prevent needless suffering, disability and death for the estimated one hundred and thirty three million patients who sustain extremity and pelvic fractures globally every year,” says Dr Amaru.