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...

A patient with pre-eclampsia at 31 weeks’ gestation developed neurologic signs. Computerized tomography revealed a large cranial subdural hematoma. This diagnostic should be considered in any pre-eclamptic patient demonstrating neurological symptoms and must be treated effectively because of the poor maternel and fetal prognosis. Our patient was succesfully treated.

L'hématome sous-capsulaire du foie est une complication rare de la grossesse, survenant le plus souvent dans le cadre d'une pré éclampsie ou d'un HELLP syndrome (Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, and Low Platelets Syndrome). Rare sont les cas décris au cours d'une stéatose hépatique aiguë gravidique. Nous rapportons le cas d'une parturiente de 33 ans, multipare, sans antécédents, admise aux urgences au terme d'une grossesse à 37 semaines d'aménorrhées, pour pré éclampsie compliquée d'une stéatose hépatique aiguë gravidique. L’échographie hépatique réalisée à l'admission était sans anomalie. Une césarienne a été réalisée en urgence devant une souffrance fœtale aiguë, au cours de laquelle a été mise en évidence une rupture de l'hématome sous capsulaire du foie s'accompagnant d'un état de choc hémorragique. La prise en charge a consisté à une polytransfusion et packing perihépatique. Le retrait du packing n'a été réalisé qu'au quatrième jour, après stabilisation clinicobiologique et régression de l'encéphalopathie hépatique. L’évolution en réanimation a été favorable avec sortie de la patiente au vingtième jour. La rupture de l'hématome sous-capsulaire du foie est extrêmement dangereuse et à haut risque materno-fœtal. L'association à la stéatose hépatique aggrave le pronostic.

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