Xue NN, Li XJ, Liu ZM, Tian F, Wang LB, Wang JH. Application effect of anticipatory care in postoperative infection and complication management in children with acute appendicitis. World J Gastrointest Surg 2025; 17(5): 103141 [DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i5.103141]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Jia-Huan Wang, MD, Doctor, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shijiazhuang Maternal and Child Health Hospital, No. 396 Youyi South Street, Hongqi Street, Qiaoxi District, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, China. wangjiahuan2014@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Nursing
Article-Type of This Article
Randomized Controlled Trial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Ning-Ning Xue, Jia-Huan Wang, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shijiazhuang Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Shijiazhuang 050006, Hebei Province, China
Xiang-Jing Li, Zhao-Ming Liu, Department of Plastic Surgery, Hebei Children’s Hospital, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, China
Fei Tian, Xingtai People’s Hospital, Xingtai 054000, Hebei Province, China
Li-Bo Wang, Pingxiang County People’s Hospital, Xingtai 054500, Hebei Province, China
Author contributions: Wang JH designed the research; Xue NN performed the research and wrote the paper; Li XJ and Liu ZM contributed new reagents or analytical tools; Tian F and Wang LB analyzed the data.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Shijiazhuang Maternal and Child Health Hospital (No. 202122).
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is not applicable to clinical trials, therefore no Clinical Trial Registration Statement has been written.
Informed consent statement: All subjects understood and agreed to the study protocol.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jia-Huan Wang, MD, Doctor, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Shijiazhuang Maternal and Child Health Hospital, No. 396 Youyi South Street, Hongqi Street, Qiaoxi District, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, China. wangjiahuan2014@163.com
Received: February 7, 2025 Revised: March 17, 2025 Accepted: April 7, 2025 Published online: May 27, 2025 Processing time: 104 Days and 17.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Acute appendicitis is common among pediatric patients, and postoperative infections and complications are significant factors that affect recovery. As a “forward-looking” nursing model, anticipatory care may reduce the incidence of postoperative wound infections and complications.
AIM
To explore the effects of anticipatory care on the management of postoperative infections and complications in pediatric patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis.
METHODS
This prospective randomized controlled study included data from 78 pediatric patients who underwent acute appendicitis surgery at Shijiazhuang Sixth Hospital (Hebei Province, China) between February 2021 and March 2024. Patients were divided into two groups: The intervention and control groups (n = 39 each) were based on a random numbers table method. Both groups received routine postoperative nursing care, whereas the intervention group received additional anticipatory care. Statistical analyses were performed using independent sample t-tests, χ2 tests, analysis of variance, and rank-sum tests.
RESULTS
Postoperative pain scores and hospital length of stay were significantly lower in the intervention group than those in the control group (P < 0.05 and P < 0.001, respectively). Postoperative wound infection and overall complication rates were significantly lower in the intervention group than those in the control group (5.13% vs 23.08%, P < 0.001; 15.38% vs 46.15%, P < 0.001, respectively). Furthermore, parental satisfaction scores were significantly higher in the intervention group than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Logistic regression identified high C-reactive protein level as a risk factor for postoperative infections and complications, whereas proactive (i.e. anticipatory) nursing intervention was a protective factor.
CONCLUSION
This study provided a scientific basis for the implementation of anticipatory care in the postoperative management of pediatric patients experiencing acute appendicitis.
Core Tip: Anticipatory nursing care has important application value in the postoperative care of pediatric acute appendicitis. Anticipatory nursing care can significantly reduce the incidence of postoperative infection and complications and effectively improve the satisfaction of the parents of the pediatric patients with acute appendicitis.
