Walant – Innovation That Decreases Surgical Costs, Increases Access And Allievates Poverty In Africa.

Walant – Innovation That Decreases Surgical Costs, Increases Access And Allievates Poverty In Africa.

Pankaj G Jani, Nilkanth V Jani
OTPAK, Nairobi, Kenya; COSECSA, Nairobi, Kenya

The primary aim of this study is to perform an analysis to determine if WALANT when compared to alternative anesthetic techniques is cost effective for simple upper and lower limb surgeries. The study focused on patients who underwent surgery using the WALANT technique between January 2021 and May 2022. This economic evaluation assessed economic costs from a health system perspective, focusing on direct medical care costs. Descriptive statistics were used to report the demographic characteristics of the participants. 640 patients were screened for eligibility for this study. Of these, 590 patients were included in the intervention arm of this economic evaluation. 590 matched participants who were given non-WALANT anesthesia were used for comparison. The cost of using the WALANT technique was found to be approximately one third of the cost of similar procedures done under the non-WALANT forms of anesthesia. The cost savings of WALANT surgery shows a cost reduction of 16.5 million Kenyan shillings (US$128,000) in 15 hospitals in parts of their first 3 years of WALANT use since 2020. We have demonstrated that surgery is less expensive with WALANT in the main operating theater by eliminating the costs of unnecessary sedation. WALANT field sterility surgery in minor procedure rooms is even less expensive without the costs of unnecessary main operating room full sterility for many operations. These two changes increase access to surgery as it is more affordable and decrease poverty by making surgery less debt crippling. In addition, moving smaller procedures out of the main operating theater to minor procedure rooms liberates more main operating room time and more general anesthesia time so patients have increased access to more major surgeries. Increased access time to procedures such as total knee replacements enable patients to get back to work to help eliminate poverty.

Keywords: WALANT, INNOVATION, COST EFFECTIVE, ALLIEVATING POVERTY, INCREASING ACCESS TO SURGERY