Lessons Learned From the Surgical Experience of a World Health Organization Classified Emergency Medical Team (EMT-2).

Authors

Francois Ansart, Philippe Agopian, Romain Kedzierewicz, Olivier Yavari, David Andriamahakajy, Sorin Zavoianu, Mosbah Kamoundji, Harizo Rasolofonirina, Christophe Laplace, Sébastien Mirek, Anthony Couret, Michel Cherbetian, Patrice Dusserre, Yael Lecras, Guillaume Bouhours, Paul Ribelles, Louis Brac, Jean-Philippe Page, Anne Daoudal, Gauthier Buzencais, Bérangère Sauzat, Marie-Eve Macel, Didier Pourret, Guillaume Burlaton, Isabelle Arnaud, Sébastien Gaujoux

Published in

World journal of surgery. Sep 19, 2026. Epub Sep 19, 2026.

Abstract

On December 14, 2024, Cyclone Chido struck Mayotte, a small French island in the Indian Ocean, isolated, economically fragile and marked by social difficulties driven by rapid population growth and migration pressures. This climate disaster caused numerous casualties (40 killed, about 4000 wounded and around 40 people unaccounted for) and severe damage to already strained healthcare infrastructure. This study reports the deployment and surgical activity of the ESCRIM WHO-EMT-2 Civil Protection field hospital in Mamoudzou, Mayotte's main town.
Online sources, mission reports, logbooks, and interviews with deployed staff and local surgeons were reviewed to analyze the setup and surgical activity of the French WHO-EMT-2 field hospital.
The first surgery started 10 days after the cyclone, and 46 hours after the WHO-EMT-2 landing in Mayotte. Over a 37-day mission (32 days of active mission and 5 days suspended due to a subsequent cyclone), 268 procedures were performed on 205 patients. The WHO EMT-2 substantially increased the island's surgical capacity during the initial phase of the response. After an initial massive influx of patients, the surgical team mainly managed septic indications (98%), with primary closure (9%), secondary intention healing (78%), negative pressure wound therapy (4.8%), and amputations (3%). Among these septic indications, 69% involved the extremities (hands and feet). Readmission exceeded 10%, representing up to one-third of the daily caseload at the end of the mission.
When deployed, WHO-EMT-2 field hospitals can significantly expand local surgical capacity. Initial mass influx and high reoperation rates must be anticipated. This should contribute to developing procedural guidelines for surgical practice in disaster settings.

PMID:
42760857
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 19 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.