Beyond the operation: Building sustainable follow-up after post-surgical humanitarian trips

Postoperative follow-up, an essential component of surgical care, remains a challenge during short-term surgical trips (STSTs). A previously described community-based follow-up protocol achieved follow-up exceeding 90% in Sierra Leone. This study evaluated the reproducibility of this protocol in a larger, multispecialty STST and examined factors associated with loss to follow-up.

A retrospective review of eight multispecialty STSTs to Mampong, Ghana (2016-2025) was performed. Patient demographics, procedural characteristics, and follow-up completion were analyzed using univariate and multivariable methods.

Among 505 patients, 465(92.1%) completed follow-up. Age, gender, and case complexity were not associated with follow-up. Specialty, anesthesia type, and length of stay were significant on univariate analysis, but not on multivariate analysis.

A structured, community-based follow-up protocol achieved sustained, high follow-up rates across nearly a decade of multispecialty STSTs. Successful implementation demonstrates a scalable, reproducible framework for improving continuity of care and postoperative outcome assessment in global surgery.