Review of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in a General Hospital Setting: Experience from a Developing Country

Abstract

Background: Plastic and reconstructive surgery in developing countries and underserved areas are significantly limited and face changes to start a proper service. This study presents a review of plastic surgery services and experiences in a district hospital located in an underserved area.
Methods: This descriptive, retrospective, hospital-based study was conducted to review patients who presented to the plastic and reconstruction departments from January 2014 to January 2015. All patients seen in the outpatient clinic or emergency departments for plastic surgical consultation or management were included in the study.
Results: The total of 403 cases fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The emergency surgical operation performed in our unit were distributed in the following descending order; fingertip injury (32%), cut wrist (12.7%), cut extensor tendon (9.9%), gunshot injuries (9.4%), fracture of a small bone of the hand (8.3%), and lower limb trauma. Surgery for congenital deformities constituted the most elective operation done in our unit (31.6%), followed by tumor surgery (18.7%), burn surgery (17.3%), aesthetic surgery procedure (12.2%), and other miscellaneous cases (12.2%).
Conclusion: This report demonstrates the efficacy of secondary hospital setting to accommodate a large volume of patients during the first year of establishment, and further predicting development needs, staff training, and governmental support.