[Survey of anesthesia practice in Morocco]

To estimate qualitatively and quantitatively the anaesthetic activity in Morocco to identify of the priorities and the norm to recommend.

The investigation was realised from July 1999 to December 1999. It lasted seven days from Tuesday 8 PM to the following Tuesday 8 PM. A questionnaire was addressed to each hospital. One responsible has been chosen for each city. Data has been processed using the programming languages Microsoft Visual Basic.

All Moroccan's hospitals practicing anaesthesia: university hospitals (UH), public hospitals (PH), and private sector (PS).

All anaesthetic procedures realised by an anaesthetists; anaesthesia in medical office or dental surgery was excluded.

An inventory of 2,630 anaesthesia was made. Anaesthesia distribution according to the type of hospitals was the same; PH = 35.7%, UH = 34.3% and PS = 29.96%. The preanaesthetic consultation was achieved in 47% of cases. Premedication was done in 28.5% of cases. General anaesthesia represented 3/4 of total anaesthesia. Thiopental was the drug the more frequently used. Gallamine and pethidine were still used in PH. Locoregional anaesthesia was realised in only 15% of cases. Electrocardioscopic surveillance not constant (65%), capnography almost absent in PH, pulse oximetry used in UH and PS. Ambulatory anaesthesia was used in 20% and emergency surgery in 30% of cases.

Questioning about the Moroccan practice of anaesthesia is raised by this survey mostly because of drugs and monitoring use.