Pattern of Chest Surgery Related Diseases at a Tertiary Care Hospital of South-Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the pattern of thoracic surgical disease and surgical interventions performed in the Thoracic Surgery Department of a tertiary care hospital of Pakistan. Methodology: The following is a retrospective descriptive purposive study done in the year 2016 at the Thoracic Surgery Department of the Nishter Medical University Hospital, Multan, Pakistan. All the patients who were admitted through out-patient department or referred from other units, over the year 2016, were analyzed. Variables under consideration included mode of admission, patient’s diagnosis, surgical procedure performed, type of anesthesia induced and the mortality. Data was presented using descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 634 patients (370 females and 264 males) were admitted during the study period, out of which 566 came through the out-patient department while the remaining were referrals from other wards. In total, 697 surgeries were performed with esophagoscopy and dilation being the most frequent (38.7%), followed by tracheostomy (16.3%). Corrosive intake (49.8%) accounted as the cause for the highest number of admissions followed by empyema thoracis (11.4%). Conclusion: Local study on the topic of Thoracic Surgery audit, in terms of surgeries performed and variation of cases presented, has become an absolute necessity for better health care planning of Pakistan. The pattern of thoracic surgical diseases varies considerably in different regions and populations.  The evaluation of these disease patterns can help to adopt appropriate preventive measures to reduce the incidence of these diseases. Furthermore, it can significantly improve our health system. KEYWORDS: Thoracic surgery, Thoracic surgical diseases, Surgical Audit, Pakistan, Pattern of disease DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/66-07 Publication date: June 30th 2020