Pediatric Day Case Surgery in Rural Medical Outreach Programs: Enugu Experience

Abstract

Background: Pediatric day case surgeries performed in the rural setting of medical outreach is of great benefit to the patients who could not have access to specialist pediatric surgical care. The purpose of study was to evaluate our experience in carrying out pediatric day case surgeries during medical outreaches in the rural settings of Enugu, south east Nigeria.Methods: This was a retrospective study of children that had day case surgeries during medical outreach in the rural areas of Enugu, south east Nigeria, over a 5-year period. The patients' demographics, duration of symptoms, diagnosis, operative procedure performed, outcome of treatment and complications of treatment were evaluated.Results: During the study period, a total of 108 cases of pediatric day case surgeries were performed which accounted for 58.7% of all medical outreach surgeries. There were 81 (75%) males and 27 (25%) females, with a male to female ratio of 3:1. The median age of the patients was 54 months with a range of 10 -72 months. The median duration of the lesions was 7 months. Herniotomy for inguinal hernia and hydrocele was the most common performed surgical procedure. All the surgeries were performed under general anesthesia. Outcome was good in most of the patients. Surgical site infection was the most common post-operative complication. There was no mortality. Conclusion:Pediatric surgical outreach programs offer opportunity for the treatment of surgical lesions of children in the rural areas who do not have access to specialist pediatric surgical care. Pediatric surgical outreach program can achieve reduction in surgical disease burden of children in the rural areas.

Prophylactic Antibiotics Use in Pediatric Day Case Surgery: Is it Really Necessary?

“…Furthermore, orchidopexy is only performed in males. The overall mean age of the patients at presentation of 50 months is consistent with the report of other series on day case surgeries 11 . However, there are differences in the mean ages of children that underwent day case surgeries.…”