Pediatric surgery backlog at a Ugandan tertiary care facility: COVID-19 makes a chronic problem acutely worse

Study quantifies COVID-19's impact on pediatric surgical access at Uganda's Mulago Hospital, where elective cases dropped to 5% of expected volume in 2020, creating a 910-patient backlog. The resulting 10,620 disability-adjusted life years translate to $23-120 million USD in economic impact, highlighting how the pandemic worsened pre-existing surgical access disparities in low-resource settings.