The Implementation of a Perioperative Registry in a Resource-Limited Setting: A Feasibility, Fidelity, and Acceptance Study.

Background: In low and middle-income countries, nine out of every ten persons is unable to access safe and timely surgery. The limited perioperative data in resource-limited settings compromises surgical and research capacity growth. By increasing data availability, surgical disparities may be addressed through research efforts and quality initiatives. This project aimed to implement and evaluate a perioperative registry in a tertiary care hospital in a low-income country.

Methods: A prospective emergency laparotomy perioperative registry was implemented in Zambia's largest teaching and referral hospital. Over the first 6-months of implementation, 162 patients were included. Data was collected postoperatively, before discharge, and at 30 days. The registries feasibility was assessed by evaluating patient accrual, retention, and 30-day completion rates. The registries fidelity was measured by evaluating data missingness. A participant acceptance survey was retrospectively collected and analyzed for the first 25 consecutively enrolled patients.

Results: The capture rate of the registry could not be calculated due to a destroyed theatre logbook. The participant accrual and retention rates were 99.4% and 95.1%, respectively. The participant completion rate at 30-days was 75.6%. The overall incidence of missing information in the registry was 3.5%. More than 75% of participant responses to the acceptance survey were positive in each category regarding the ethical conduct of research and the storing of personal data.

Conclusion: The value of this study is the reporting and evaluation of a successful perioperative registry implementation with minimal external funding. This framework is being used to develop new data registries and may provide a roadmap for other hospitals with resource constraints.