Mushtaq Ahmad, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, Shumaila Irum, Tahir Mahmood.
Comparison of the mean hospital stay between single and double layer intestinal anastomosis in pediatric surgical patients.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;13(4):779-81.

Background : In pediatric surgical practice the intestinal anastomosis is one of the commonest surgical procedures. There are two common techniques for intestinal anastomosis either single layered or double layered. Anastomotic stricture formation is the potential complication of double layered intestinal anastomosis. Currently the single layer extra mucosal anastomosis is popular . Methodology: Sixty patients were involved in randomized controlled trial study who had undergone end to end intestinal anastomosis for any benign pathology . Patients of age one month to 14 years of both genders were selected for the study. In group-A patients, intestinal anastomosis was done in single layer while in group -B patients; double layer intestinal anastomosis was done . All patients were followed for 3 months postoperatively . Results: Patients mean age was 5.57±4.00 and 5. 40±3.46 years in group -A and B, respectively. Regarding site of anastomosis, Ileum involved in 24 patients (80.0%) in group -A and in 25 patients (81.7%) of group -B. Similarly, jejunum involved in 6 patients (20.0%) of group -A and 5 patients (18.3%) of group-B. Comparison of hospital stay (days) revealed that mean hospital stay was 4.57±0.72 days in single layered group and it was 6.10± 0.84 days in double layered group. P value between two groups was statistically significant (p<0.001) . Conclusion: This study concludes that complication rates of single -layered intestinal anastomosis are quite less . Apart from that hospital stay is significantly reduced in this technique which lowers the overall cost as compared to double-layered technique .

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