Postoperative Intensive Care Requirements of Pediatric Surgery Patients

Abstract

Introduction: To evaluate the duration of pediatric intensive care stay, hospitalization and the factors affecting mortality in patients who were operated by pediatric surgery and followed up in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in the postoperative period. Methods: One hundred forty-three patients who were operated between September 2018 and January 2020 and hospitalized in the PICU for post-operative follow-up were included in the study. Results: The median age of the 143 patients included in the study was 31.00 (1-205) months, and 76 (53.1%) were male. Ninety-six patients had no comorbidity, 47 patients had at least one comorbidity. The most frequent developed post-operative complications were sepsis (n=7) and intra-abdominal hypertension (n=7). The presence of sepsis extended the intensive care unit stay by 4.46 days, the need for inotropes by 3.61 days, the development of intra-abdominal hypertension by 3.33 days, and the presence of comorbidity by 0.86 days. The presence of sepsis extended the hospitalization period 28.04 days, the need for respiratory support 21.78 days, and the presence of malnutrition 14.42 days. Conclusion: It would be more appropriate to follow-up patients, who are operated by pediatric surgery, especially those with comorbidity and malnutrition, who need intraoperative blood products or who have the risk of developing complications in the postoperative period in PICUs.

Keywords

• post-operative
• intensive care
• children