Patients in low- and middle-income countries were up to six times more likely to die from complications within 30 days of surgery compared to those in high-income countries , the report said.
Hospitals in these countries were found to be less likely to have post-operative facilities or care plans.
By investing in appropriate rehabilitation and ward space, trained staff, early warning systems and emergency care facilities would lead to much better surgical care and reduce the number of deaths. , experts said.
In the largest study of its kind, researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Birmingham analyzed data for nearly 16,000 patients in 428 hospitals across 82 countries who underwent breast, bowel and stomach cancer surgery between April 2018 and January 2019.
Surgery is an important part of cancer treatment with 80 percent of cancer patients undergoing surgery.
Stomach cancer patients who underwent surgery were three times more likely to die in low- and middle-income countries than those in high-income countries.
Bowel cancer patients were four times more likely to die in low- and middle-income countries than those in high-income countries.
There was no difference in deaths between countries for patients who underwent breast cancer surgery.
Complications after surgery are common, but hospitals that provide a high level of postoperative care found the best results, even when treating late-stage cancers, the study found.
Low- and middle-income countries with postoperative care facilities involved were associated with seven to ten fewer deaths per 100 complications.
The research, published in The Lancet, funded through the Global Health Unit of the National Institute for Health Research in Global Medicine.
The team only looked at early outcomes after surgery, but, in the future, plan to study long-term outcomes and other cancers.
Professor Ewen Harrison, Professor of Surgery and Data Science, University of Edinburgh, said: “Rich and poor countries have talented surgeons and anaesthesiologists, but low-resource countries do not have the infrastructure to support the problems that occur during surgery. We now know that this can have a significant impact on whether a patient is alive or not. ”
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