Pollution causing cancellation of surgeries at hospitals: Docs
NEWDELHI: Every year, the number of planned surgeries that get cancelled in major Delhi hospitals sees a threefold rise owing to patients failing pre-anaesthesia checkupdue to throat, airways and lung infections compounded by pollution, doctors said.
Respiratory tract and chest infections, aggravated asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Copd)caused and aggravated by severe air pollution make it difficult to anaesthetise patients for surgery.
Children under 15 and patients above the age of 60 are the worst affected, doctors said.
“If we look at just the paediatric surgery department in our hospital, around 100-120 children come in every month for surgeries. In summer months, around 5 to 7 surgeries have to be cancelled because of respiratory infections. This number goes up to 15 or 20 when the pollution spike in the city,” said S Rajeswari, professor of anaesthesia at AIIMS, Delhi.
The situation was the same in neighbouring Safdarjung Hospital. “This trend is observed every year. The number of such patients goes up during winter months. This is because when the temperature dips, people are more prone to infections due to the season change. The pollen count also goes up along with pollution,” said Anoop Raj Gogia, head of the department of anaesthesia at Safdarjung hospital.
“The respiratory infections and allergies are a problem as patients, especially children, are unable to properly breathe in the inhalation agent,” said Rajeswari. This is because of bronchospasms — spasms of the bronchii muscles — leading to problems in gassing patients for anaesthesia.
“Apart from patients not being able to take in the gases in adequate quantities, bronchospasms leads to narrowing of the air passageways creating problems in adequate intake of oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide during the surgery,” said Baljit Singh, professor of anaesthesia at Govind Ballabh Pant hospital.
At Fortis Memorial Research Institute, where Raghavendra Giri works, there was a 25 to 30% increase in the number of patients for whom the surgery had to be postponed this month.
“We usually ask the patients to stay at home and take antibiotics, if needed, and come back in two weeks,” said Dr Giri. In emergency cases, when the surgeons have to operate despite respiratory problems, after which the outcomes are worse.