Impact Case Study: Improving access to emergency surgery in Kenya

Insufficient anaesthesia services limit access to emergency and essential surgery, causing considerable suffering and deaths. In seeking to address this issue study evaluated the Every Second Matters (ESM) – Ketamine package when administered by non-anaesthetists in the crisis-affected regions of Kenya.

The study concluded that the package is a safe, feasible and cost-effective mechanism to address the ‘anaesthesia gap’ in resource-limited settings such as humanitarian crises. The project has contributed to a lasting impact on clinical practice and the knowledge and understanding of practitioners, enabling 1,989 emergency and life-improving surgeries (including 236 caesarean sections) in the 12 facilities in Kenya that received ESM-Ketamine training. Improved hospital services and staff morale were also reported by study centres. The study team received a further grant enabling the package to expand initially to 15 further facilities, and now to 17 countries.

R2HC captures detailed case studies through a process that triangulates and validates evidence on uptake and impact. The case study methodology and full version of this summary case study including references are available on request. Outputs and resources from this study are available on the project page.