The Current State of Neurosurgery in Haiti.

Abstract

Even though surgical conditions account for as much as 32% of the global burden of disease, 5 billion people worldwide do not have access to timely, affordable surgical and anesthetic care. Access to surgical care is separated along socioeconomic divides, and these disparities are most pronounced in low-and middle-income countries, such as the Caribbean nation of Haiti, where the availability of specialty surgical services like neurosurgery are scant, or completely absent. This paper provides a narrative account of current neurosurgery-related activity in Haiti, a nation whose social, political, and economic context is unique in the Americas. After some background information and a bibliometric analysis of recent research efforts, we provide brief biographical sketches of Haiti's local neurosurgical leaders and an overview of recent initiatives in Haitian neurosurgical capacity building. The paper concludes with recommendations to guide the international neurosurgery community in future contributions.