[The specialty of anesthesia outside Western medicine with special consideration of personal experience in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mongolia].
During the last decades anesthesia has developed into a wide ranging specialty in western countries, whereas in most developing and newly industrializing nations it still focuses on its core discipline, the perioperative care of the surgical patient. Poor socioeconomic status and inadequate financing of health systems result in a high burden of disease, a high rate of self-financing of healthcare costs by the patients, as well as insufficient personnel, infra-structural and material equipment of most healthcare facilities. Important limiting factors for anesthesia are low educational standards and a widespread lack of oxygen and medical gas supplies, as well as locally serviceable medical equipment. Studies evaluating the status of anesthesia in developing and newly industrializing nations in detail are urgently needed in order to provide aid on national and international as well as institutional and private levels for the development of anesthesia in poor countries.
Dünser
M
M
Klinik für Anästhesie, Medizinische Universität, Innsbruck, Osterreich. Martin.Duenser@uibk.ac.at
Baelani
I
I
Ganbold
L
L
D000758:Anesthesia; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D003422:Critical Care; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo; D003906:Developing Countries; D004635:Emergency Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D008986:Mongolia; D059408:Pain Management; D012306:Risk