Inguinal Hernia in a small child- Ensuring good results after hernia repair surgery
Though the hernia repair in a small child is an easy and straightforward surgery but anesthesia can be very tricky and difficult. Small babies need to be handled with lot of care including small well calculated doses of anesthesia, smaller tubes, gentle intubation for artificial breathing during surgery and all this needs to be done by a well-trained pediatric anesthetist.
Small babies become cold easily during surgery as they do not have much body fat or muscles which can shiver to keep them warm. Hence we try to make sure that the small children undergoing any surgery are kept warm during surgery. Some of the things which we do are: keeping the room temperature of operation theatre between 24-26 degrees, we wrap the baby in warm cotton rolls, warming pad under the baby at 37 degrees, restrict exposed areas of baby, cover the rest of body with warm sterile towels and lastly use only warm betadine/ saline to clean the areas before surgery.