Burden of Surgery in Saudi Arabia, an Experience of a Tertiary Academic Hospital: A Longitudinal Descriptive Study
Author(s): Almarhabi Yahya*
Abstract
Introduction: Surgery has a significant positive impact on human life. In fact, major disability and mortality can be prevented by providing appropriate surgical interventions. Since Lancet published the report about global burden of disease (GBD), increasing attention has been paid to surgical care and its importance in the post-2015 development plan of the World Health Organization. Surgical diseases account for about 11%–25% of the GBD, and 234 million surgeries are performed annually worldwide. Thus, our study aimed to assess the burden of surgery among hospitalized patients, which is an important step toward providing a better surgical care.
Method: This longitudinal descriptive study was conducted from January 2004 until the end of 2019 at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We included all admitted patients who underwent major surgeries, except for caesarean sections and other obstetric surgeries. Data about variables, including total number of patient admission, operation per patient, and operation per procedure, were assessed for the evaluation of the total burden of surgery (TBS) among the admitted patients.
Results: During the observation period, there were 642,810 admitted patients, and the mean annual number of admissions was 40,175. The daily rate of major surgical procedure was 22.70 and a total of 13,2578. The TBS among all admitted patients was 21%, and the burden of surgery among all emergency admissions was 31%. Meanwhile, the burden of surgery among all elective admissions was 19 %.
Conclusion: Surgery is considered important burden among patients admitted to our institution. Further studies must be conducted to achieve better surgery care in the region and health care resource planning.