Pediatric anaesthesia practice at the Sangmélima’s Referral Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the practice of paediatric anaesthesia at theSangmélima’s Reference Hospital.

Methodology: This was a retrospective descriptive study from 1 January 2021 to 31 August 2023. All operated children aged 15 years or less were included. The variables studied were demographic characteristics, anaesthetic techniques used, complications and the profile of the staff who performed the anaesthesia.

Results: During the study period, 667 patients underwent surgery, including 81 children (12.1%). Males predominated (74.3%). The mean age was 6.8 ± 4.3 years. 79% of the patients had undergone surgery. Trauma surgery was predominant (32.1%). Patients were classified as ASA I (65.4%), ASA II (28.4%) and ASA III (6.2%). General anaesthesia was the most commonly used technique (96.3%). It was combined with endotracheal intubation (57.7%). Anaesthetic induction was intravenous (96.1%). Propofol was the preferred intravenous hypnotic (57.3%). Halothane
was used for maintenance (72.8%). Anaesthesia was mainly performed by nurse anaesthetists (IADE) alone (38.3%) and anaesthetist-intensive care physician-IADE (33.3%). We found 34.6% of intraoperative complications, dominated by cardiovascular complications (82.1%). The most commonly used analgesics were paracetamol alone (27.2%) and the paracetamol-tramadol combination (66.7%). There were no cases of death.

Conclusion: Pediatric anaesthesia practice is comparable to that in sub-Saharan Africa. Complications are frequent. It would be advisable to improve perioperative organisation.