Performance of a pediatric ambulatory anesthesia program--a developing country experience.
BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a pediatric ambulatory anesthesia program in a tertiary care teaching hospital in a developing country.


METHODS
Data on all pediatric patients (<16 years of age) scheduled to have elective day-care surgery during a 1 year period from January 1999 to December 1999 were collected retrospectively. An audit form was used to determine the specialty of the procedures, anesthesia techniques, postoperative analgesia, perioperative complications, unplanned admissions and outcomes with respect to morbidity and mortality.


RESULTS
A total of 763 pediatric ambulatory surgical procedures were performed during the year of 1999. The procedures included general surgery, ENT, orthopedic and plastic surgery. The most common procedure was inguinal hernia repair followed by umbilical hernia repair, adenotonsillectomy and circumcision and 96% of the patients had general anesthesia. There were only three unplanned admissions (0.4%); one for a surgical reason and two for anesthetic reasons. There was no serious morbidity or mortality in any patient.


CONCLUSIONS
Performance of pediatric day-care anesthesia has been good in our day-care unit and we have a successful ambulatory surgery program, despite the limitations of a developing country.
Hariharan
Seetharaman
S
Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Trinidad, West Indies. uwi.hariharan@gmail.com
Chen
Deryk
D
Merritt-Charles
Lorna
L
Rattan
R
R
Muthiah
K
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D000758:Anesthesia / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D010092:Oximetry; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000453:epidemiology; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014300:Trinidad and Tobago / Q000453:epidemiology