Summary Background Risk of mortality following surgery in patients across Africa is twice as high as the global average. Most of these deaths occur on hospital wards after the surgery itself. We aimed to assess whether enhanced postoperative surveillance of adult surgical patients at high risk of postoperative morbidity or mortality in Africa could reduce 30-day in-hospital mortality. Methods We did a two-arm, open-label, cluster-randomised trial of hospitals (clusters) across Africa. Hospitals were eligible if they provided surgery with an overnight postoperative admission. Hospitals were randomly assigned through minimisation in recruitment blocks (1:1) to provide patients with either a package of enhanced postoperative surveillance interventions (admitting the patient to higher care ward, increasing the frequency of postoperative nursing observations, assigning the patient to a bed in view of the nursing station, allowing family members to stay in the ward, and placing a postoperative surveillance guide at the bedside) for those at high risk (ie, with African Surgical Outcomes Study Surgical Risk Calculator scores ≥10) and usual care for those at low risk (intervention group), or for all patients to receive usual postoperative care (control group). Health-care providers and participants were not masked, but data assessors were. The primary outcome was 30-day in-hospital mortality of patients at low and high risk, measured at the participant level. All analyses were done as allocated (by cluster) in all patients with available data. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT03853824 . Findings Between May 3, 2019, and July 27, 2020, 594 eligible hospitals indicated a desire to participate across 33 African countries; 332 (56%) were able to recruit participants and were included in analyses. We allocated 160 hospitals (13 275 patients) to provide enhanced postoperative surveillance and 172 hospitals (15 617 patients) to provide standard care. The mean age of participants was 37·1 years (SD 15·5) and 20 039 (69·4%) of 28 892 patients were women. 30-day in-hospital mortality occurred in 169 (1·3%) of 12 970 patients with mortality data in the intervention group and in 193 (1·3%) of 15 242 patients with mortality data in the control group (relative risk 0·96, 95% CI 0·69–1·33; p=0·79). 45 (0·2%) of 22 031 patients at low risk and 309 (5·6%) of 5500 patients at high risk died. No harms associated with either intervention were reported. Interpretation This intervention package did not decrease 30-day in-hospital mortality among surgical patients in Africa at high risk of postoperative morbidity or mortality. Further research is needed to develop interventions that prevent death from surgical complications in resource-limited hospitals across Africa. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Federati...

Background Improving patient safety during anesthesia and surgery becomes a major global public health issue due to the increasing in surgical burden. Anesthesia is delivered safely in developed countries, but its safety is hampered by complex problems in third world countries. This survey assesses the unmet anesthesia needs of one of a third world country, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Amhara region of Ethiopia from 15/12/2019 to 30/1/2020. All 81 hospitals of the region were stratified by their level as district, general, and referral hospital. The study was conducted in 66 hospitals. The number of hospitals from each strata were calculated by proportional sampling technique resulting; five referral, three general, and fifty eight primary hospitals. Each hospital from each strata was selected by convenience. Each anesthesia provider for the survey was selected randomly from each hospital and questionnaires were distributed. The minimum expected safe anesthesia requirements were taken from World Health Organization-World Federation of Societies of Anesthesiologists International Standard and Ethiopian Hospitals Standard. Anesthesia practice was expected safe if the minimum requirements were practiced always (100%) in each hospital. P < 0.05 with 95% confidence interval were used to compare the safety of anesthesia between higher and lower level hospitals. Results Seventy eight (88.6%) anesthesia providers working in 62 hospitals responded to the survey. On aggregate, 36 (58%) hospitals from the total 62 hospitals have met the minimum expected safe anesthesia requirements. Among the different variables assessed; professional aspects 32 (52.45%), medication and intravenous fluid 33 (53.36%), equipment and facilities 33 (52.56%), patient monitoring 43(68.88%), and anesthesia conduct 38 (62.1%) of surveyed hospitals have met the minimum requirements. Anesthesia safety is relatively higher in higher level hospitals (general and referral) 6 (75%) when compared to district hospitals 30 (55.5%), P < 0.001. Conclusion Anesthesia safety in Ethiopia appears challenged by substandard continuous medical education and continuous professional development practice, and limited availability of some essential equipment and medications. Patient monitoring and anesthesia conduct are relatively good, but World Health Organization surgical safety checklist application and postoperative pain management are very low, affecting the delivery of safe anesthesia conduct.