Postoperative Care and Recovery in Pediatric Appendectomy

Original Article

Abstract

Background : Appendectomy is the most frequent surgical emergency operation which is carried out on children. This is the case since post-operative care is important to reduce possible adverse effects and achieve the best recovery possible. Pain control, postoperative patient’s mobilisation and anti-infective measures are critical components of postoperative care.

Objectives : to compare specific postoperative care interventions with outcomes for children undergoing appendectomy the following criteria were considered; pain control and modality used, infection prevention strategies, and overall pediatric patient recovery.

Study design : A cross-sectional study

Place and duration of study. Department of paediatric surgery MMC Hospital mardan from jan 2022 to july 2022

Methods :this cross-sectional study involved one hundred pediatric patients who underwent appendectomy between December 2015 and December 2020. Data collected for the patients were their basic information, surgery type, and characteristics along with surgery outcome data. Other measures include the length of time taken for recovery, the rate of infections and pain levels from different care delivery strategies.

Results : mean age of patients was 9. 8 years (SD = 2. 5). There were incidences of postoperative infection at 7% while 92% of patients claimed good pain management. Multimodal pain management had the following positive outcomes: average length of stay was shorter in patients in the multimodal pain management group as compared to opioids only group (p = 0. 03); opioids consumption was lower in the multimodal pain management group as compared to opioids only group. The recovery times averaged to 3. 5 day.

Conclusion : Appropriate interventions after surgery such as controlling of postoperative pain through administration of a combination of therapies as well as encouraging the child to move immediately after the operation results in better children’s appendectomy recovery. The infection rates also decreased as well as the duration of hospital stay was short in patients who utilized comprehensive care models.