Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Pediatric surgery is one of the demanding surgical disciplines. Surgical care for
pediatric patients in developing countries are said to be too expensive to deliver mainly due to
many factors and the burden of non-surgical illnesses. The pattern of pediatrics surgical
admission is poorly documented. So that mortality, morbidity, and outcomes were difficult for
analysis despite many children with the surgical illness having been managed. In Ethiopian
tertiary level hospitals, many sick children were found coming with a variety of surgical
diseases. There is no previous study conducted on the pattern and outcome of pediatrics surgical
patients in Gondar, Ethiopia.
Objectives: To find out the pattern and short-term outcome of pediatrics surgical patients in
University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia 2021.
Methodology: A prospective, hospital-based, cross-sectional, observational, descriptive study
was conducted from January to September 2021 among pediatrics surgical patients. Data was
collected by interview and chart review. Data was entered into Epi-info version 7 and exported to
SPSS version 25 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were carried out and the result was presented
in texts, tables, and graphs.
Results: A total of 262 patients participated in this study and the outcome of pediatrics surgical
patients were discharged, died, left against medical advice, and referral 86.6%, 4.1%, 3.7% and
2.6% respectively. Appendicitis was the commonest diagnosis among pediatric surgical patients
which was diagnosed among 24.6% of which all were discharged improved. On the other hand,
the highest mortality was recorded among patients diagnosed with omphalocele.
Conclusion: Appendicitis was the commonest diagnosis among pediatric surgical patients. The
highest mortality was recorded among neonates. Delayed presentation, younger age group and
the nature of underlying pathology could have contributed for the death, but this needs further
study.
Keywords: Pattern Outcome Pediatric surgical admission Gondar Ethiopia
