A retrospective audit of paediatric surgical admission in a sub-urban tertiary hospital

Abstract

Data on utilization of paediatric surgical services and the burden of paediatric surgical diseases in the West African subregion is scarce. This retrospective study describes paediatric surgical admissions in a Nigerian teaching hospital between January 1998 and December 2002. Two hundred and eighty three children up to 15 years of age with surgical disorders were studied. Their mean age (+/- SD) was 5.8 +/- 4 years for males and 6.9 +/- 4 years for females. Length of stay (LOS) ranged from 1 to 127 days (mean 17 days). Turnover interval declined from 22.1 to 6.4 days while percentage bed occupancy and patients per bed per year averaged 70% and 17.4 respectively between January 2000 and December 2002. The highest mean LOS was due to malignant neoplasm (38 +/- 12 days), trauma (22 +/- 25) and surgical infection (21 +/- 22 days) while the shortest mean LOS was due to foreign body (6 +/- 4 days). The most common admitting diagnoses were trauma (36.7%), congenital anomalies (27.9%) and surgical infections (22.6%). Foreign body (2.1 %), benign tumours (0.7%) and malignant neoplasms (0.7%) were uncommon. Overall mortality was 0.4%. Childhood injuries, congenital anomalies and infections are important paediatric health problems.