Surgery in a temporary setup- sharing an experience of 16 months

ABSTRACT

Sharing an experience of surgery in a temporary set up. Descriptive study. This study was carried out at Combined Military Hospital Muzaffarabad after the earthquake of October 2005 over a period of 16 months. The workload that this hospital has managed over the period despite running under tents. The hospital was functioning under the temporary set up. Patients were earth quake victims requiring different surgical procedure. A total of 2887 major and 7471 minor surgical procedures pertaining to the specialty of General Surgery, Orthopedics, ENT, EYE and Gynecology were carried out over a period of 16 months. Though the load was comparable to any [C] class and most of the [B] class hospitals, despite being under tents, there was not a single case of post operative infection. The importance of single-use-only surgical disposables in the good management of surgical patients has also been highlighted. The basic sterilization techniques, if followed religiously stand good in preventing postoperative infection, even in compromised working condition