{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T19:18:54Z","timestamp":1754162334135,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"California Digital Library (CDL)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,12]],"date-time":"2025-07-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1752278400000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Western Journal of Emergency Medicine"],"abstract":"<p>Background: Delivery of emergency surgical care remains a challenge in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, with physician shortages in Uganda resulting in only one surgeon per 100,000 people. Emergency units in Uganda receive emergency surgical patients, but it is unknown how great of a burden these emergency surgical patients represent in terms of total number, care required, or outcomes. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of a quality assurance database for all patients treated at two emergency units in Uganda from 2009\u20132019. Patients were defined as \u201csurgical\u201d if they were admitted directly to the operating theatre, received a surgical diagnosis, or received an emergency surgical procedure as identified by the Disease Control Priorities 3 (DCP3) group. We generated descriptive statistics. Results: Of the 109,999 total patients seen, 24,745 (22.5%) were emergency surgical patients. Surgical patients were predominantly male (71.7%) with a mean age of 34.9 years. Most surgical patients (57.0%) were admitted to the hospital, while 38.9% were discharged, and only 1.7% were sent directly to the operating theatre. In total, 12.1% of all patients seen in the emergency unit received a surgical procedure from a non-physician clinician while in the unit. Of the surgical procedures, the most common were suturing of lacerations (51.8%), urinary catheterization (24.5%), fracture management (16.5%), and incision and drainage of abscesses (6.0%). Among surgical patients, the most common surgical diagnoses were for fractures (30.9%), lacerations (29.6%), and abscesses (8.8%). The overall three-day mortality for emergency surgical patients was 2.8%. Conclusion: Emergency surgical patients are common in Ugandan emergency units, where emergent surgical procedures are commonly performed by non-physician clinicians. Strengthening system capacity for emergency surgical patients should also consider emergency unit resources.<\/p>","DOI":"10.5811\/westjem.24989","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,12]],"date-time":"2025-07-12T18:08:43Z","timestamp":1752343723000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Surgical Disease Burden, Outcomes, and Roles of Non-Physician Clinicians in Ugandan Emergency Departments"],"prefix":"10.5811","volume":"26","author":[{"given":"Stacey","family":"Chamberlain","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pearl","family":"Ugwu-Dike","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ronald","family":"Mbiine","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Sims","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Brian T","family":"Rice","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"29705","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,12]]},"container-title":["Western Journal of Emergency Medicine"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/escholarship.org\/content\/qt0wp5d52w\/qt0wp5d52w.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,30]],"date-time":"2025-07-30T03:55:46Z","timestamp":1753847746000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/escholarship.org\/uc\/item\/0wp5d52w"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,12]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,19]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5811\/westjem.24989","relation":{},"ISSN":["1936-9018"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1936-9018"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,12]]}}}