title: Inguinal hernia repair in a developing country.
abstract: Hernia surgery is typically same-day surgery and can be safely conducted in a developing country. We describe a collaborative effort of the American Hernia Society, the Institute of Latin American Concerns, medical industries, the United States Peace Corps, physicians, surgical residents and nurses from many institutions. During three 5-day periods, we operated on 236 patients and repaired 252 hernias (73% inguinal). In addition, an education day for local physicians was conducted on three occasions and included televised live surgical demonstrations and interactive lectures with question and answer sessions. We suggest this to be a viable public health initiative and demonstrate the role of surgeons in advancing and providing state-of-the-art inguinal hernia surgery to a developing country and its underserved population.
authors.affiliation: Creighton University Medical Center, 601 N 30th street, Omaha, NE 68131, USA.
authors.forename: Kiran K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Turaga
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.forename: Molly
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coeling
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Bardia
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Amirlak
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jaszczak
authors.forename: Barb
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Manion
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Filipi
mesh_terms: D003906:Developing Countries; D004293:Dominican Republic; D006552:Hernia, Inguinal / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D014481:United States