Turkiye Klinikleri Pediatri, vol.20, no.1, pp.10-15, 2011 (Scopus)
Objective: To assess the profile and outcome of children admitted to a tertiary level pediatric intensive care unit. Material and Methods: A retrospective study was undertaken of 516 children admitted to pediatric intensive care unit. Demographic features, diagnosis, chronic disease, pediatric risk of mortality score, incidance and complications of mechanical ventilation, nosocomial infection and mortality were documented. Results: Mean age was 38 months (1 month-17 year) and median length of pediatric intensive care unit stay was 3.0 days (1-335). Diagnoses included respiratory system diseases (n=117,22.9%), intoxications (n=115, 22.3%), infections (n=56, 10.9%), neurological diseases (n=55, 10.7%), trauma (n=48, 9.3%), cardiac diseases (n=33, 6.4%), methabolic-endocrine diseases (n=32, 6.2%), postoperative fallow (n=26,5.0%), gastrointestinal diseases (n=15, 2.9%), renal diseases (n=5, 1.0%) and other desaeses (n=13, 2.5%). Incidence of nosocomial infections was 14% (n=72). Among 516 patients, 216 (41.9%) were artificially ventilated and duration of ventilation was 6 days (12 hour-150 days). Complications were developed in 255% (n= 55) of artificially ventilated patients. There was chronic disease in 46.3 % (n=239) of patient. Median PRISM score on admission was 9.6 (2-36)and the median admission PRISM score of nonsurvivors was 30.0 (6-46); the median PRISM score of survivors was significantly lower then non-survivor (p<0.05). Mortality was 17.2% (n=89) and 39.8% (n=86) of artificially ventilated patients were dead. Conclusion: This study showed that pulmonary diseases and intoxications were major causes of pediatric intensive care unit admission. Mortality and complications were greater in artificially ventilated patients. The nosocomial infections were quite high in pediatric intensive care unit. Copyright © 2011 by Türkiye Klinikleri.