[Outpatient pediatric urology in France: A still under developed practice. Results of a survey of the French Section of pediatric Urology (SFUP)].

PURPOSE: Outpatient surgery is a very well adapted practice to the pediatric population. Our goal was to evaluate its actual development in the field of the pediatric urology.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

A questionnaire was addressed to all the French pediatric surgery centers in which at least one surgeon was member of the French Section of Pediatric Urology. The questionnaire concerned the organization and the outpatient urology procedures performed during the years 2011 and 2012.

RESULTS

Thirty of the 34 approached centers returned the questionnaire. The total number of patients concerned in this study was of 33,166. The practices were very variable among centers: the inferior limit of age for anesthesia ranged from 2 to 12 months and type of surgery was also heterogeneous. Foreskin surgery, orchiopexy for undescended testis, inguinal hernia, and endoscopic treatment of vesico-ureteral reflux were the only procedures performed for more than 60% of cases as outpatient surgery. Outpatient surgery is not well developed in hypospadias repair. Only five centers raised 60% of ambulatory procedures for distal cases. No serious complication related to the outpatient approach was reported.

CONCLUSION

This survey demonstrated very heterogeneous practices among French pediatric urologic centers. According to the French guidelines about outpatient pediatric surgery, this type of care could be more developed if anesthesiologists and surgeons accepted to evolve in their practice.