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Treating Children With Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: The NGO EMERGENCY's Project at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan

Rheumatic heart disease is endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa and while efforts are under way to boost prophylaxis and early diagnosis, access to cardiac surgery is rarely affordable. In this article, we report on a humanitarian project by the NGO EMERGENCY, to build and run the Salam Centre for Cardiac...

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Autores principales: Miccio, Rossella, Quattrociocchi, Maria, Valgoi, Lorenzo, Chatenoud, Liliane, Lentini, Salvatore, Giovanella, Elena, Rolla, Luca, Erba, Nicoletta, Gatti, Sofia, Rocchi, Daniela, Saad, Manahel Badr, Salvati, Alessandro, Langer, Martin, Portella, Gina, Strada, Gino
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8417837/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34490162
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.704729
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author Miccio, Rossella
Quattrociocchi, Maria
Valgoi, Lorenzo
Chatenoud, Liliane
Lentini, Salvatore
Giovanella, Elena
Rolla, Luca
Erba, Nicoletta
Gatti, Sofia
Rocchi, Daniela
Saad, Manahel Badr
Salvati, Alessandro
Langer, Martin
Portella, Gina
Strada, Gino
author_facet Miccio, Rossella
Quattrociocchi, Maria
Valgoi, Lorenzo
Chatenoud, Liliane
Lentini, Salvatore
Giovanella, Elena
Rolla, Luca
Erba, Nicoletta
Gatti, Sofia
Rocchi, Daniela
Saad, Manahel Badr
Salvati, Alessandro
Langer, Martin
Portella, Gina
Strada, Gino
author_sort Miccio, Rossella
collection PubMed
description Rheumatic heart disease is endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa and while efforts are under way to boost prophylaxis and early diagnosis, access to cardiac surgery is rarely affordable. In this article, we report on a humanitarian project by the NGO EMERGENCY, to build and run the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan. This hospital is a center of excellence offering free-of-charge, high-quality treatment to patients needing open-heart surgery for advanced rheumatic and congenital heart disease. Since it opened in 2007, more than 8,000 patients have undergone surgery there; most of them Sudanese, but ~20% were admitted from other countries, an example of inter-African cooperation. The program is not limited to surgical procedures. It guarantees long-term follow-up and anticoagulant treatment, where necessary. By way of example, we report clinical features and outcome data for the pediatric cohort: 1,318 children under the age of 15, operated on for advanced rheumatic heart disease between 2007 and 2019. The overall 5-year survival rate was 85.0% (95% CI 82.7–87.3). The outcomes for patients with mitral valves repaired and with mitral valves replaced are not statistically different. Nevertheless, observing the trend of patients undergoing valve repair, a better outcome for this category might be assumed. RHD in children is an indicator of poor socio-economic conditions and an inadequate health system, which clearly will not be cured by cardiac surgery alone. Nevertheless, the results achieved by EMERGENCY, with the crucial involvement and participation of the Sudanese government over the years, show that building a hospital, introducing free cardiac surgery, and offering long-term post-operative care may help spread belief in positive change in the future.
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spelling pubmed-84178372021-09-05 Treating Children With Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: The NGO EMERGENCY's Project at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan Miccio, Rossella Quattrociocchi, Maria Valgoi, Lorenzo Chatenoud, Liliane Lentini, Salvatore Giovanella, Elena Rolla, Luca Erba, Nicoletta Gatti, Sofia Rocchi, Daniela Saad, Manahel Badr Salvati, Alessandro Langer, Martin Portella, Gina Strada, Gino Front Pediatr Pediatrics Rheumatic heart disease is endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa and while efforts are under way to boost prophylaxis and early diagnosis, access to cardiac surgery is rarely affordable. In this article, we report on a humanitarian project by the NGO EMERGENCY, to build and run the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan. This hospital is a center of excellence offering free-of-charge, high-quality treatment to patients needing open-heart surgery for advanced rheumatic and congenital heart disease. Since it opened in 2007, more than 8,000 patients have undergone surgery there; most of them Sudanese, but ~20% were admitted from other countries, an example of inter-African cooperation. The program is not limited to surgical procedures. It guarantees long-term follow-up and anticoagulant treatment, where necessary. By way of example, we report clinical features and outcome data for the pediatric cohort: 1,318 children under the age of 15, operated on for advanced rheumatic heart disease between 2007 and 2019. The overall 5-year survival rate was 85.0% (95% CI 82.7–87.3). The outcomes for patients with mitral valves repaired and with mitral valves replaced are not statistically different. Nevertheless, observing the trend of patients undergoing valve repair, a better outcome for this category might be assumed. RHD in children is an indicator of poor socio-economic conditions and an inadequate health system, which clearly will not be cured by cardiac surgery alone. Nevertheless, the results achieved by EMERGENCY, with the crucial involvement and participation of the Sudanese government over the years, show that building a hospital, introducing free cardiac surgery, and offering long-term post-operative care may help spread belief in positive change in the future. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-08-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8417837/ /pubmed/34490162 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.704729 Text en Copyright © 2021 Miccio, Quattrociocchi, Valgoi, Chatenoud, Lentini, Giovanella, Rolla, Erba, Gatti, Rocchi, Saad, Salvati, Langer, Portella and Strada. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Pediatrics
Miccio, Rossella
Quattrociocchi, Maria
Valgoi, Lorenzo
Chatenoud, Liliane
Lentini, Salvatore
Giovanella, Elena
Rolla, Luca
Erba, Nicoletta
Gatti, Sofia
Rocchi, Daniela
Saad, Manahel Badr
Salvati, Alessandro
Langer, Martin
Portella, Gina
Strada, Gino
Treating Children With Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: The NGO EMERGENCY's Project at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan
title Treating Children With Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: The NGO EMERGENCY's Project at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan
title_full Treating Children With Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: The NGO EMERGENCY's Project at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan
title_fullStr Treating Children With Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: The NGO EMERGENCY's Project at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan
title_full_unstemmed Treating Children With Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: The NGO EMERGENCY's Project at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan
title_short Treating Children With Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa: The NGO EMERGENCY's Project at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan
title_sort treating children with advanced rheumatic heart disease in sub-saharan africa: the ngo emergency's project at the salam centre for cardiac surgery in sudan
topic Pediatrics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8417837/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34490162
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.704729
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