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Cite this article:
Ugochukwu Vincent Okafor, Jerome Azike. A review of anaesthesia for emergency laparotomy in paediatric intestinal obstruction in Enugu, Nigeria. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2009;3:7 Key words: Anaesthesia, Laparotomy, Children, Nigeria Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/3/7/full Received: 04/06/2009 - Accepted: 06/10/2009 - Published: 16/10/2009 © Ugochukwu Vincent Okafor et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
A review of anaesthesia for emergency laparotomy in paediatric intestinal obstruction in Enugu, Nigeria
Ugochukwu Vincent Okafor1&, Jerome Azike2
1&Department of Anaesthesia, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, Nigeria, 2Department of Surgery, Imo state University Teaching Hospital, Orlu, Imo state, Nigeria
&Corresponding author
Ugochukwu V Okafor, Department of Anaesthesia, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria,
Background
To review the anaesthetic management and outcome for emergency laparotomy for paediatric intestinal obstruction in the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria.
Method
The anaesthetic charts and folders of pediatric patients that had emergency laparotomy for intestinal obstruction in the general operating theatre of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, Nigeria, from October 2007 - September 2008 were reviewed. The records were examined for anaesthetic technique, patient primary diagnosis, intra-operative events, blood and fluid therapy and patient outcome. Patients above thirteen years were excluded.
Results
Forty-four out of 285 (15.7%) paediatric patients underwent emergency laparotomy for intestinal obstruction in the general operating theatre. There were 29 males and 15 females. The average age of the patients was 3.75 years. There were a total of 1674 anesthetics in the general operating theatre during the study. The leading causes of intestinal obstruction in this study were typhoid peritonitis (14 or 31.8%), intussusceptions (14 or 31.8%) and congenital anomalies (11 or 25%). Six patients (13%) had a preoperative packed cell volume of less than 30%, while ten patients received intra-operative blood transfusion (21.7%). There was one anesthetic death to give a case mortality rate of 2.2%.
Conclusion
The mortality rate in this study shows the importance and relevance of trained providers of anaesthesia managing paediatric patients in the developing world. Early presentation of patients allowed time for resuscitation and fewer complications before surgery.
