British media said that research shows that 4.2 million people die within 30 days of surgery every year around the world.

According to a report on the British Daily Mail website on January 31 , the University of Birmingham in the UK analyzed data from 29 countries and made a shocking discovery: the number of people who died after surgery was 1.23 million more than the total number of deaths from HIV infection, tuberculosis and malaria .

Overall, 7.7% of deaths worldwide occurred within 30 days of surgery . Only heart disease and stroke were bigger killers.

Postoperative complications—such as bleeding and infection—are considered the leading causes of postoperative mortality.

The study was reportedly conducted by the University of Birmingham and led by Dmitry Nebogodiev from the university's Department of Public Health and Surgery.

Dr. Nebogodiev said surgery has been the "neglected stepchild" of global health, with only a fraction of the money invested in treating infectious diseases such as malaria.

"While not all postoperative deaths are preventable, many could be avoided with increased investment in research, staff training, equipment and hospital facilities," he said.

To determine the quality of surgery performed around the world, the researchers analyzed existing data on deaths following surgery, the report said .

The study shows that 2.97 million people die each year from AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria.

Tuberculosis is the tenth most common cause of death worldwide, accounting for 2.2% of deaths each year . HIV/AIDS and malaria are not among the top ten causes of death worldwide.

17.3% of all deaths each year , followed by stroke ( 10.1% ) and then surgery.

4.2 million people who died after surgery were in low- or middle-income countries, the report said. And people living in these countries often cannot get the surgery they desperately need. Researchers estimate that 4.8 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe and affordable surgery.

143 million surgeries are not performed each year, despite patients being in dire need of treatment . If these surgeries were performed, the number of post-operative deaths would further increase to 6.1 million per year, the researchers said .

The study did not analyze the causes of postoperative deaths, but the authors wrote that many were "the result of postoperative complications." Some patients may also have died because the surgery failed to relieve the disease it was intended to treat.

"To avoid more deaths after surgery, proposed plans to increase access to surgery must be accompanied by investments to improve the quality of surgery worldwide," Nebogodiev said.

Dane Morton, co-author of the study and head of the department of surgery at the University of Birmingham, added that as access to surgery increases, the safety of those operations must also improve.

He said: "Surgery can save lives and change the quality of life for patients, but this study shows that a large number of patients die soon after surgery. As efforts continue to increase access to surgery around the world, we also urgently need to study how to improve the quality and safety of surgery."