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

Background: Data on utilization of paediatric surgical services and the burden of paediatric surgical diseases in the West African subregion is scarce. Methodology: This retrospective study describes paediatric surgical admissions in a Nigerian teaching hospital between January 1998 and December 2002. Results: 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%. Conclusions: Childhood injuries, congenital anomalies and infections are important paediatric health problems.