Adolescent Surgical Emergencies

Surgical emergencies occupy an important place in surgery due to their high frequency, their difficult management, their high mortality and morbidity. Our objectives were to study the epidemiological, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of adolescent emergencies (10-19 years old) at the CHU-Sylvanus Olympio in Lomé. Over a period of 3 years, 1464 adolescents were admitted out of 17830 patients, i.e. 8.23%. Teenagers aged 17 to 19 were predominant (15.09%). The sex ratio was 2.17. These were pupils or students (78.96%). The mode of occurrence was road accidents (63.93%). Among non-traumatic surgical emergencies, acute appendicitis constituted 3.82% of cases. Pelvic limb fractures (19.74%) and cranio-encephalic trauma (18.78%) were noted in traumatic surgical emergencies. All patients had received analgesics, 26.77% resuscitation, 58.26% anti-inflammatories, 36.68% antibiotics. Surgical and orthopedic treatment depended on the diagnosis. The mortality was 1.02%. Surgical emergencies in adolescents are a challenge for management and treatment.