Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Nov 2024
Observational StudyImpact and Feasibility of Mechanical Ventilation at a Surgical Center in Sierra Leone: Experience From EMERGENCY's Hospital in Goderich.
Despite the large burden of critically ill patients in developing countries, mechanical ventilation (MV) is scarce in these low-resource settings. In the absence of data, issues like costs and lack of training are often felt to outweigh the benefits of potential MV implementation in such places. We aimed to investigate the impact and feasibility of MV in a surgical ICU in West Africa. ⋯ This study strongly supports the implementation of MV in low-resource settings. In our experience, the consistent benefit of reduced mortality among critical patients largely outweighs the associated challenges.