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Background Recommendations by the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery regarding surgical care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) require development to address the needs of children. The Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery (GICS) was founded in 2016 to identify solutions to problems in children’s surgery by utilizing the expertise of practitioners from around the world. This report details this unique process and underlying principles. Methods Three global meetings convened providers of surgical services for children. Through working group meetings, participants reviewed the status of global children’s surgery to develop priorities and identify necessary resources for implementation. Working groups were formed under LMIC leadership to address specific priorities. By creating networking opportunities, GICS has promoted the development of LMIC-LMIC and HIC-LMIC partnerships. Results GICS members identified priorities for children’s surgical care within four pillars: infrastructure, service delivery, training and research. Guidelines for provision of care at every healthcare level based on these pillars were created. Seventeen subspecialty, LMIC chaired working groups developed the Optimal Resources for Children’s Surgery (OReCS) document. The guidelines are stratified by subspecialty and level of health care: primary health center, first-, second- and third-level hospitals, and the national children’s hospital. The OReCS document delineates the personnel, equipment, facilities, procedures, training, research and quality improvement components at all levels of care. Conclusion Worldwide collaboration with leadership by providers from LMICs holds the promise of improving children’s surgical care. GICS will continue to evolve in order to achieve the vision of safe, affordable, timely surgical care for all children.

Recognizing the unmet need for surgical care in Ethiopia, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has pioneered innovative methodologies for surgical system development with Saving Lives through Safe Surgery (SaLTS). SaLTS is a national flagship initiative designed to improve access to safe, essential and emergency surgical and anaesthesia care across all levels of the healthcare system. Sustained commitment from the FMOH and their recruitment of implementing partners has led to notable accomplishments across the breadth of the surgical system, including but not limited to: (1) Leadership, management and governance —a nationally scaled surgical leadership and mentorship programme, (2) Infrastructure —operating room construction and oxygen delivery plan, (3) Supplies and logistics —a national essential surgical procedure and equipment list, (4) Human resource development —a Surgical Workforce Expansion Plan and Anaesthesia National Roadmap, (5) Advocacy and partnership —strong FMOH partnership with international organizations, including GE Foundation’s SafeSurgery2020 initiative, (6) Innovation —facility-driven identification of problems and solutions, (7) Quality of surgical and anaesthesia care service delivery —a national peri-operative guideline and WHO Surgical Safety Checklist implementation, and (8) Monitoring and evaluation —a comprehensive plan for short-term and long-term assessment of surgical quality and capacity. As Ethiopia progresses with its commitment to prioritize surgery within its Health Sector Transformation Plan, disseminating the process and outcomes of the SaLTS initiative will inform other countries on successful national implementation strategies. The following article describes the process by which the Ethiopian FMOH established surgical system reform and the preliminary results of implementation across these eight pillars.

Investing in surgery has been highlighted as integral to strengthening overall health systems and increasing economic prosperity in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). The provision of surgical care in LMICs not only affects economies on a macro-level, but also impacts individual families within communities at a microeconomic level. Given that children represent 50% of the population in LMICs and the burden of unmet surgical needs in these areas is high, investing pediatric-specific components of surgical and anesthesia care is needed. Implementation efforts for pediatric surgical care include incorporating surgery-specific priorities into the global child health initiatives, improving global health financing for scale-up activities for children, increasing financial risk protection mechanisms for families of children with surgical needs, and including comprehensive pediatric surgical models of care into country-level plans.

While small bowel resection is well established as standard of care for curative-intent management of localized and loco-regional small bowel neuroendocrine tumors (SB-NETs), resection of the primary tumor in the setting of metastatic disease is debated. This review addresses the role of primary tumor resection for stage IV well-differentiated grade 1 and 2 SB-NETs. While survival benefits have been reported for primary tumor resection in the setting of metastatic disease, these studies are limited by selection bias and thus controversial. The main clinical benefits of primary tumor resection for stage IV disease involve the prevention of potentially debilitating complications associated with mesenteric fibrosis, including intestinal obstruction, mesenteric ischemia and angina, venous congestion, malabsorption, and malnutrition. Patients with metastases undergoing initial resection of the primary SB-NETs appear to have fewer episodes of care and re-intervention for loco-regional complications than those who do not undergo resection. As recommended by the NANETS and ENETS guidelines, resection of the primary tumor for stage IV SB-NETs should be strongly considered to avoid future loco-regional complications and potentially to improve survival. All patients with stage IV SB-NETs should be assessed by a surgeon experienced in the management of NETs to consider surgical therapies, including resection of the primary tumor despite metastatic disease.

Osteoporosis is an epidemic in the developed world. Fracture is a major burden associated with osteoporosis. Surgical management is recommended for particular anatomical areas, whilst other fracture patterns have a less defined and controversial role for surgery. This review aims to highlight increase in the global burden of osteoporosis and subsequent fragility fractures. As health and life expectancy improves, osteoporotic fracture fixation will constitute a significant physical and economic burden. The surgical management of osteoporotic fractures involves awareness on all levels from government to the individual, from primary prevention of fracture to surgical aftercare in the community.

Background Many potentially treatable non-congenital and non-traumatic surgical conditions can occur during the first 8000 days of life and an estimated 85% of children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will develop one before 15 years old. This review summarizes the common routine surgical emergencies in children from LMICs and their effects on morbidity and mortality. Methods A narrative review was undertaken to assess the epidemiology, treatment, and outcomes of common surgical emergencies that present within the first 8000 days (or 21.9 years) of life in LMICs. Available data on pediatric surgical emergency care in LMICs were aggregated. Results Outside of trauma, acute appendicitis, ileal perforation secondary to typhoid fever, and intestinal obstruction from intussusception and hernias continue to be the most common abdominal emergencies among children in LMICs. Musculoskeletal infections also contribute significantly to the surgical burden in children. These “neglected” conditions disproportionally affect children in LMICs and are due to delays in seeking care leading to late presentation and preventable complications. Pediatric surgical emergencies also necessitate heavy resource utilization in LMICs, where healthcare systems are already under strain. Conclusions Delays in care and resource limitations in LMIC healthcare systems are key contributors to the complicated and emergent presentation of pediatric surgical disease. Timely access to surgery can not only prevent long-term impairments but also preserve the impact of public health interventions and decrease costs in the overall healthcare system.

A precise diagnosis is key to the successful treatment of achalasia. Barium swallow, upper endoscopy and high-resolution manometry provide the necessary information about a patient’s anatomy, absence of other diseases, and type of achalasia (I, II, III). High-resolution manometry also has prognostic value, the best results of treatment being obtained in type II achalasia according to the Chicago classification. Abdominal CT scanning and endoscopic ultrasound might be warranted if an underlying malignancy is suspected.

The management of nodal disease remains controversial for small bowel neuroendocrine tumors (SB-NETs). Debates remain regarding the therapeutic role and extent of routine lymph node dissection (LND) for localized SB-NETs, as well as the need for aggressive resection of advanced loco-regional SB-NETs with mesenteric nodal masses. This review will address these questions regarding lymph node dissection for well-differentiated WHO grade 1 and 2 SB-NETs. In general, the aggressiveness and radicality of resection should be balanced against the length of bowel resected and post-operative functional outcomes. In localized SB-NETs with clinically negative lymph nodes, a nodal harvest of ≥ 8 lymph nodes provides accurate staging, but has not been shown to confer survival benefit. For loco-regional SB-NETs with clinically positive lymph nodes identified on imaging, 4 stages of nodal extent have been described: stage 1 nodes are located near to the intestinal border, stage 2 on arterial branches close to the origin of the SMA, stage 3 along the SMA itself, and stage 4 extend in the retroperitoneum under the pancreatic neck. In SB-NETs, every attempt should be made at resection of the primary tumor and the nodal mesenteric mass for curative-intent management and to prevent debilitating complications from mesenteric fibrosis. A mesenteric-sparing approach is favored to allow for resection for complex proximal nodal masses while preserving intestinal length and function. All patients with SB-NETs with nodal mesenteric mass should be assessed by a surgeon for resection; if deemed unresectable, consideration should be given to assessment in high-volume NETs centres to confirm proximal mesenteric-sparing resection is not feasible.

Achalasia is a primary esophageal motility disorder of unknown origin. The goal of treatment is to reduce the resistance caused by a lower esophageal sphincter that fails to relax and is frequently hypertensive. Many treatment options are available to achieve this goal. In this review, we discuss the pros and cons of each therapeutic approach.