ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC REPORT The Establishment and Development of Neurosurgery Services in Papua New Guinea

The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a developing Pacific Nation of 7.3 million people. Although neuro-surgery training was introduced to PNG in the year 2000, it was in 2003 that a neurosurgery service was established. Prior to this time, neurosurgery in PNG was performed by general surgeons, with some assistance from visiting Australian neurosurgeons. Neurosurgical training was introduced to PNG in 2000. The model involved a further 3 years of training for a surgeon who had already completed 4 years of general surgical training. We aim to review the output, outcomes and impact achieved by training the first national neurosurgeon. Methods The data on activity (output) and outcomes were collected prospectively from 2003–2012. Ongoing mentoring and continuing professional development were provided through annual neurosurgical visits from Aus-tralia. There were serious limitations in the provision of equipment, with a lack of computerized tomographic or MR imaging, and adjuvant oncological services. Results There were 1618 neurosurgery admissions, 1020 neurosurgical procedures with a 5.74 % overall mortality. Seventy percent of cases presented as emergencies. There were improved outcomes, particularly for head injuries, whilst hydrocephalus was managed with an acceptable morbidity and revision rate