Building Surgical Capacity Sustainably in Resource-Constrained Ghanaian Hospital

This local anesthesia technique and subsequent procedure room were born out of a necessity to increase surgical capacity at a major tertiary center in Ghana. Over the past 7 years, it has proven to be increasingly productive while remaining cost-effective for both patients and the hospital system alike. The transformation of a storage room into this procedure room shows how easily replicable this setup can be throughout other hospital systems. Finally, WALANT is an accepted practice in many parts of the world, and is easily learned. This model is thus a sustainable and practical solution to the surgical capacity problems facing overburdened medical systems in developing countries.