Promoting a new capnograph for safer surgery and anaesthesia

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Extract from the article: Smile Train et Lifebox se mettent ensemble pour promouvoir une chirurgie et une anesthésie plus sûres dans les blocs opératoires des pays à faibles revenus. Ceci, à travers le capnographe, un outil de surveillance qui indique si un patient est suffis

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Smile Train and Lifebox are joining forces to promote safer surgery and anaesthesia in operating theatres in low-income countries. This is achieved through the capnograph, a monitoring tool that indicates whether a patient is being supplied with sufficient air during anaesthesia.

To mark World Anaesthesia Day on 16 October 2023, the two organisations have expressed their commitment by launching the new Smile Train-Lifebox capnograph, in collaboration with their industrial partner Zug Medical Systems. It is accompanied by training in its use for anaesthetists, particularly in Benin, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Uganda.

The project is part of the Smile Train-Lifebox initiative for safe surgery and anaesthesia, which aims to improve the safety of anaesthesia and paediatric surgical care in low- and middle-income countries. This year, 350 low-resource operating theatres will be equipped with the new Smile Train-Lifebox capnograph, with the idea of closing an access gap that puts the lives of people undergoing surgery in low-resource regions at risk.

The importance of capnography

Smile Train and Lifebox explain that a capnograph is the best tool for detecting a major cause of anaesthesia-related complications and deaths in low-resource countries, and that increasing the number of capnographs available will help close the gap in anaesthesia safety for people (including children) undergoing surgery in low-resource settings.

« Putting someone under anaesthetic without a capnograph is like flying blind - you don't have the basic information you need to keep them safe. As healthcare providers, we are concerned that our surgical patients are not being monitored by this essential device, even though it is common practice in wealthy countries. Capnography should not be a privilege; it is a requirement for patient safety everywhere, and it is needed now », said Dr Zipporah Gathuya, a paediatric anaesthetist at Nairobi Hospital, Kenya, and a member of Smile Train's Global Medical Advisory Board. « For more than a decade, Smile Train has worked with Lifebox to equip hospitals around the world with essential monitoring tools for children undergoing surgery », said Smile Train President and CEO Susannah Schaefer. "The launch of the Smile Train-Lifebox Capnograph will have a transformative impact on the safety of every child with a cleft who undergoes surgery - enhancing surgical safety for all surgical patients.

Anaesthetist and Director of Programme Safety at Smile Train, Dr Elizabeth Igaga, explained that capnography has been protecting surgical patients in the USA for over 30 years, yet until now this life-saving monitoring tool has unfortunately remained inaccessible to most operating theatres in Africa.  « Making the Smile Train-Lifebox capnograph available at an affordable price is the first significant step in bridging this gap », she said, hoping that the WHO will take urgent steps to change the guidelines for the use of capnography in safe anaesthesia, to enable its rapid adoption by low- and middle-income countries.

The Smile Train-Lifebox capnograph is high-quality, user-friendly and affordable, with a robust construction and long battery life. According to the developers, it meets rigorous specifications for monitoring paediatric patients and for use in low-resource environments. It has also undergone rigorous laboratory and field testing.Smile Train, the world's largest cleft organisation.Lifebox is a global not-for-profit organisation that saves lives through safer surgery and anaesthesia. Through tools, training and partnerships, Lifebox fills critical gaps in surgical systems to make surgery and anaesthesia safer around the world.

Elom AKAKPO