Temporal Trends and Spectrum of Pediatric Surgical Conditions Operated In A Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital In Pakistan

Introduction: Knowing the temporal trends as to when and how many pediatric surgery patients present and are operated on in a newly developed unit is crucial in the allocation of resources and policy making in health care center. Aims & Objectives: The aim of this study is to describe the spectrum and pattern of operated pediatric surgery patients in a newly developed pediatric surgical unit of Pakistan. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at Pardiatric Surgery Unit of Holy Family hospital, Rawalpindi between January 2020 and September 2021. Material & Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study conducted on all patients that were operated under Pediatric surgery unit over a period of 20-months. Data regarding age, sex, diagnosis, and procedure performed were obtained. Diagnoses were categorized based on organ system. SPSS version 22 was used to perform the data analysis., a p-value of ?0.05 was considered significant. Results:898 procedures were performed in total with a male to female ratio of 2.03:1. Most of the patients fell under 2-8 years of age. Digestive system disorders (164, 18.3%) and genitourinary (377, 42%) made most of the cases observed, with inguinal hernias making up to 15.0% of all cases. Oddsratio was calculated for different variables which showed that male patients , patients with gastrointestinal problems had greater odds of being operated. Conclusion: The expected number of operated cases in a newly developed unit is comparable to other units that have been established for a long time.More focus research needs to be done on different aspects of pediatric surgery in our region and to try for integration of pediatric surgery into public health programs including primary and secondary health centers to meet the increasing demand of pediatric surgical patients presented to tertiary care.