*Corresponding Author: John, Medical Student, Cardiff University, UK.

Received: March 16, 2024; Published: April 23, 2024

Abstract

Background: The burden of surgical diseases in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) is relatively high due to the lack of resources for adequate surgical care. This affliction is significantly higher in the pediatric population as children tend to have more complex surgical needs. This research aims to identify the prevalence of pediatric surgical diseases, the most common paediatric surgical diseases and the operative mortality, at a single tertiary centre in Saudi Arabia. It will also help to identify the outcomes of paediatric surgical diseases which will help to better educate the public about the most common surgical presentations in children.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted at a single surgical centre in King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh over a seven-year period (2010-2017). All patients younger than 14-years-old at presentation, with pediatric surgical diseases, were included for analysis.

Results: Two hundred and twenty patients have been identified. The majority of patients were from the Riyadh and Al-Qassim region. The male to female ratio was 1:0.94 respectively. The most common diagnosis was Wilms tumour (37.2%) followed by Hirschsprung’s disease (23.3%). In total, 202 (90.6%) patients underwent one operation, with 48.4% and 12.1% undergoing secondary and tertiary procedures respectively. Seventy-eight (36.1%) patients were admitted to intensive care units for rehabilitation and/or post-surgical care, of which 66.7% were admitted for less than two weeks. There were 37 (16.6%) patients with complications following surgery, of which the majority occurred less than 30 days post- operatively (77.8%). The overall mortality and morbidity rates were 0.9% and 10.3% respectively. Long- term development was normal in 189 (87.5%) patients.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the spectrum of surgical conditions in a single tertiary hospital in Riyadh, which supports children from all regions of Saudi Arabia. This gives valuable insight outcomes of common pediatric surgical diseases. Based on this data, this article highlights the need for improved education, resource allocation and tailored outreach programmes to support children with a limited access to surgical care. However, we recognize that the small sample size in the study limits generalization of our results to the paediatric population of Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Urgical Diseas; Paediatric; Prevalence; Restrospective Review

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Citation

Citation: Brejeetta John., et al. “The Prevalence of Paediatric Surgical Diseases, and the Operative Mortality, at a Single Tertiary Centre in Saudi Arabia".Acta Scientific Paediatrics 7.5 (2024): 06-12.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2024 Brejeetta John., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.