Epidemiology and Mortality of Pediatric Surgical Conditions: Insights from aTertiary Center in Uganda

The burden of pediatric surgical disease is largely unknown in low- and middle-income countries such as Uganda where access to care is limited.Implementation of a locally led database in January 2012 at a Ugandan tertiary referral hospital, and review of 3465 prospectively collected pediatric surgical admissions from January 2012 to August 2016.2090 children (60.3%) underwent surgery during admission. 59% were male and 41% female. 28.6% of admissions were in neonates and 50.4% were in children less than 1 year old. Congenital anomalies including Hirschsprung’s, anorectal malformations, intestinal atresias, omphalocele, and gastroschisis were the most common diagnoses (38.6%) followed by infections (15.0%) and tumors (8.6%). Mortality rates were substantially higher than those of high-income countries; for example, gastroschisis and intussusception had mortality rates of 90.1% and 19.7%, respectively. Post-operative mortality was highest in the congenital anomalies group (15.0%).There is a high burden of infant congenital anomalies with higher mortality rates compared to high-income countries. The unit performs primarily specialized procedures appropriate for a tertiary center. We hope that these data will facilitate evaluation of ongoing quality improvement and capacity-building initiatives.

Keywords

Global surgery · Burden of disease · Pediatric surgery · Surgical outcomes · Uganda

Citation

Cheung, M., Kakembo, N., Rizgar, N., Grabski, D., Ullrich, S., Muzira, A., ... & Ozgediz, D. (2019). Epidemiology and mortality of pediatric surgical conditions: insights from a tertiary center in Uganda. Pediatric Surgery International, 35(11), 1279-1289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00383-019-04520-2

URI

https://nru.uncst.go.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/2785

Collections

Medical and Health Sciences

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