Background: The Operating Theatre Practitioners Association of Kenya (OTPAK) has played a disruptive, innovative, and transformative role in improving access to patients needing surgery in East Central and Southern Africa, covering a population of approximately half a billion. Wide Awake Local Anaesthesia No Tourniquet (WALANT) surgery was introduced by Dr. D. Lalonde in Kenya in 2019 and is now practiced widely across SSA. This paper explores the evolution of the WALANT, detailing the key milestones, the barriers encountered, and the resulting impact on surgical education, healthcare delivery, improved access, and alleviation of poverty

Objectives: The main objectives of WALANT were to improve access to patients requiring surgery through significant cost reduction by avoiding inpatient care, anaesthesiologists, and the use of the main operating rooms, resulting in alleviation of poverty.

Methods: The OTPAK database was used to analyze the training sessions performed at workshops, list the number of doctors trained and the surgeries carried out using WALANT surgery, and also work out the savings incurred.

Results: Since 2019, WALANT surgery has been practiced at more than 45 hospitals across Kenya, with a total alleviation of poverty to the tune of approximately half a billion shillings per year. WALANT has also been introduced at 50 more hospitals across 10 neighbouring African countries, with a significant reduction in costs of surgery and resultant marked improvement in access to surgery; the barriers encountered will also be discussed.

Conclusion: WALANT is a game changer in LMICs where pre-operative investigations are difficult to perform, anaesthesiologists are far and few in between, main operating rooms are lacking, and above all, patients living with neglected surgical conditions because of the lack of finances required for traditional surgery.

TBA