The Role of Neurosurgery in Countries with Limited Facilities: Facts and Challenges

Franco Servadei; Zefferino Rossini; Federico Nicolosi; Carlotta Morselli; Kee B Park

doi:10.1016/j.wneu.2018.01.047

The Role of Neurosurgery in Countries with Limited Facilities: Facts and Challenges

World Neurosurg. 2018 Apr:112:315-321. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2018.01.047. Epub 2018 Jan 31.

Authors

Franco Servadei¹, Zefferino Rossini², Federico Nicolosi², Carlotta Morselli², Kee B Park³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, Humanitas University, Pieve Emanuele (MI), Italy; Department of Neurosurgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano MI, Italy; World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, Nyon, Switzerland. Electronic address: franco.servadei@hunimed.eu.
² Department of Neurosurgery, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano MI, Italy.
³ Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

PMID: 29366998
DOI: 10.1016/j.wneu.2018.01.047

Abstract

The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery has recently focused its attention on the lack of surgical care worldwide. Like other surgical subspecialties, neurosurgical care needs to be better distributed around the world, with a major focus on low- to middle-income countries. Neurosurgical diseases like hydrocephalus, traumatic brain injury, and brain tumors have a high impact on families, individual quality of life, and cost for the society. Implementation of neurosurgical care in poor settings is not easy. More than other surgeries, neurosurgery requires great amounts of human resources, dedicated environments, and specialized postoperative care. It is responsibility of the neurosurgical community to identify major areas of current gaps and outline strategies for intervention.

Keywords: Education; Global surgery; LMICs; Lancet Commission; Neurosurgical care; Training; WFNS.

MeSH terms

Developing Countries
Health Services Accessibility*
Humans
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgical Procedures*
Quality of Life*