Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition : Volume 1. Essential Surgery
World Bank, 2015 :: 445 pages
Debas, Haile T.; Donkor, Peter; Gawande, Atul; Jamison, Dean T.; Kruk, Margaret E.; Mock, Charles N.
Book pdf: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/21568/9781464803468.pdf?sequence=5
Annexes:
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/21568/AnnexesEssentialSurgery.zip?sequence=4

Overview
Essential Surgery is the first volume in the Disease Control Priorities, third edition (DCP3) series. DCP3 endeavors to inform program design and resource allocation at the global and country levels by providing a comprehensive review of the effectiveness, cost, and cost-effectiveness of priority health interventions.

The volume presents data on the surgical burden of disease, disability, congenital anomalies, and trauma, along with health impact and economic analyses of procedures, platforms, and packages to improve care in settings with severe budget limitations. Essential Surgery identifies 44 surgical procedures that meet the following criteria: they address substantial needs, are cost effective, and are feasible to implement in low- and middle-income countries. If made universally available, the provision of these 44 procedures would avert 1.5 million deaths a year and rank among the most cost effective of all health interventions.

Existing health care delivery structures can be leveraged to provide affordable and quality care, with first-level hospitals capable of delivering the majority of procedures, while addressing substantial disparities in safety. Existing infrastructure can also expand access to surgery by implementing measures such as task sharing, which has been shown to be safe and effective while countries build workforce capacity. Nearly ten years after the second iteration of Disease Control Priorities was released, increased attention to the importance of health systems in providing access to quality care is once again reshaping the global health landscape. Low- and middle-income countries are continuing to set priorities for funding and are making decisions across an increasingly complex set of policy and intervention choices with a greater appreciation for the value of program and economic evaluations. By reviewing the large burden of surgical disorders, the cost-effectiveness of surgical procedures, and the strong public demand for surgical services, Essential Surgery makes a compelling case for improving global access to surgical care.

Press Release
Surgery Could Save Millions of Lives in Developing Countries
March 26, 2015

:: A new book, “Essential Surgery,” says greater access to surgical care in developing countries could avert 1.5 million deaths a year.
:: Basic surgeries such as setting broken bones or delivering babies via Caesarean section are among the most cost-effective health interventions in developing countries.
:: “Essential Surgery” is the first of nine volumes in the “Disease Control Priorities” series to be published by the World Bank Group in 2015 and 2016.

Five million people died of injuries in 2012, and 270,000 women died of pregnancy complications. Many of these deaths could have been prevented if people had better access to surgical care, says a new book published by the World Bank Group.

Essential Surgery, launched at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health sixth annual conference in Boston, is the first of nine volumes of the third edition of Disease Control Priorities (DCP3), a comprehensive review and analysis of the most effective and cost-effective approaches to global health.

The book finds that basic surgical procedures are among the most cost-effective of all health interventions in developing countries. If they were more widely available, essential surgical procedures would prevent 1.5 million deaths a year.

About 2 billion people lack access to surgical services such as Caesarean sections or setting broken bones, even though many surgeries could be offered at district hospitals in developing countries.

Until relatively recently, surgery was considered too complicated and expensive to be an integral part of public health in developing countries. But opinions are changing as more evidence emerges of the value and cost-effectiveness of basic surgical procedures.

“You’ve got a broken arm or a ruptured appendix … everybody knows you need a surgeon. And it turns out that kind of surgery is not that hard, not that expensive, and it really makes a big, big difference,” said DCP3 and Essential Surgery editor Dean Jamison, senior fellow in Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and an emeritus professor of global health at the University of Washington. Jamison was also lead author of the original Disease Control Priorities in 1993, as well as of the 1993 World Development Report, Investing in Health…