Expectant woman. [Photo/oal4.org]The risk of dying from an elective surgery in many African countries including Kenya is more than double the global average, researchers said Thursday.According to Wikipedia, elective surgery or elective procedure is surgery that is scheduled in advance because it does not involve a medical emergency .One of the surgeries with high death rates is caesarian section, which should be largely safe with minimal risks.The survey was the largest study of surgery in Africa and researchers analysed data from 247 hospitals in 25 countries including Kenya, according to the Star.The findings are contained in a paper titled “Perioperative patient outcomes in the African Surgical Outcomes Study,” published in the latest issue of the Lancet medical journal.“Despite a low-risk profile and few postoperative complications, patients in Africa were twice as likely to die after surgery when compared with the global average for postoperative deaths,” the researchers wrote.The findings show that more than four in every five patients could be considered low-risk candidates for surgery, as they were physically strong and were young, with an average age of 38.5 years.But complications, mostly entailing an infection, occurred in 18.2 percent of all patients. Nearly one in 10 (9.5 percent) of patients with complications died, the Star reports further.For those who received elective surgery, the death rate was 1.0 percent, compared with 0.5 percent in the global average.Researchers From Kenya included Andrew Ndonga from Mater Hospitqal and Prof Zipporah Ngumi from the University of Nairobi.Researchers said factors contributing to the preventable deaths include few specialists, poor hospital infrastructure and a lack of post-operative monitoring.“Initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments in Africa therefore should be coupled with improved surveillance for deteriorating physiology in patients who develop postoperative complications, and the resources necessary to achieve this objective,” the researchers said.There was also rampant lack of proper equipment and supplies which hampered surgical care. Kenyan doctors said the poor state of many public hospitals is to blame for preventable deaths.“it has to do with poor theatre condictions,” said Dr Ouma Oluga, who is also the head of Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union.

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