Early Postoperative Complications Following Myelomeningocele Repair

Authors

  • Muhammad Ali Noman Department of Neurosurgery Hayatabad Medical Complex
  • MUHAMMAD MUKHTAR KHAN Department of Neurosurgery

Keywords:

Neural tube defects, Myelomeningocele, Spina bifida, postoperative complications

Abstract

Introduction: Neural tube defects are one of the most common congenital anomalies which frequently needs operative intervention for the anomaly correction. Complications can arise in these paediatric patients peri-operatively which require special considerations.
Materials and Methods: After taking informed consent patient data was gathered in pre-designed pro-forma. After MMC repair patients were followed till the time of discharge and up to 1 month afterwards and record made of any early postoperative complications. Data was gathered about patient demographics along with postoperative recovery variables. Analysis of the data was done using SPSS version 20.0. Data was presented using graphs, charts and figures.
Results: 197 patients were included in the study with 54.31% males and 45.69% females with mean age of 71.4 days ± 61.9 SD. 68.5% patients developed at least some form of complication. The most common postoperative complication was hydrocephalous (57.4%) which was followed by postoperative fever (27.4%). VP shunt was inserted in 50.3% patients. There was no significant association between age or gender to the occurrence of complications (p = 0.85 and 0.47 respectively).
Conclusion: Since majority of infants die within the early postoperative period we should be vigilant regarding developments of these complications and minimising them. By documenting the early postoperative compli-cations, the surgical teams can improve their outcome.

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Published

2018-10-09

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 3 (2016): July-September

Section

Original Articles

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