Disease Control Priorities 3rd Edition PDF Free Download
Conditions that are treated primarily or frequently by surgery constitute a significant portion of the global burden of disease. In 2012, injuries killed nearly 5 million people, and about 270,000 women died from complications of pregnancy. Many of these deaths, as well as deaths from abdominal emergencies, congenital anomalies, and other causes, could be prevented by improved access to quality surgical care. However, surgical care itself has barely been addressed within the field of global health. A growing number of people from diverse backgrounds are attempting to change this, and to increase access to appropriate, safe, surgical care in low- and middle-income countries. The Essential Surgery volume of Disease Control Priorities, third edition (DCP3), contributes to these efforts by (1) better defining the health burden from conditions requiring surgery, (2) identifying those surgical procedures that are the most cost-effective and cost-beneficial, and (3) describing the health care policies and platforms that can universally deliver these procedures safely and effectively. Essential Surgery identifies and studies a group of “essential” surgical conditions and the procedures needed to treat them.
These surgical conditions can be defined as those that (1) are primarily or extensively treated by surgery, (2) have a large health burden, and (3) can be successfully treated by surgical procedures that are cost-effective and feasible to promote globally. To address these conditions, the authors derive a set of 44 essential surgical procedures. These include procedures to treat injuries, obstetric complications, abdominal emergencies, cataracts, and congenital anomalies, among others. We estimate that universal access to this package of essential procedures would prevent about 1.5 million deaths per year or 6 to 7 percent of all preventable deaths in low- and middle-income countries. These procedures rank among the most cost-effective of all health interventions. They are eminently feasible to promote globally, and many could be delivered at first-level hospitals. The large burden of surgical conditions, costeffectiveness of essential surgical procedures, and strong public demand for those procedures suggest that universal coverage of essential surgery should be implemented early on the path to universal health coverage.