Morbidity pattern and outcome of children admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit of Eastern India

Background:  In developing countries, there is scarce data on paediatric critical care. This makes modification of practices to improve outcome, difficult. The above study was done to highlight the lack of facilities and concept of pediatric critical in the eastern part of India so that modification of management can lead to better outcome of critically ill children. Methods: A retrospective study of the demography, clinical profile, diagnosis, treatment and outcome of children admitted to the PICU of Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences from January 2014 to December 2015 was done. Results:  A total of 848 children were admitted to the PICU with male and female children being 61.3% and 38.7% respectively. Diagnoses included infectious diseases (20.7%), respiratory disease (19.1%), central nervous system diseases (14.3%), cardiovascular diseases (10.8%), gastrointestinal diseases (7%), surgical problems (4.7%) haematological (4%), renal (3.3%), poisonings (1.4%), and others (14.3%). Out of 848 admitted children, 4.1% died and (1.4%) left against medical advice (8.5%) children received mechanical ventilation, among which (62.5%) improved, 34.7% died and 2.8% children left against medical advice. Multiorgan dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and co-morbidity were present in 25% and 22% respectively. The proportion of death among patients admitted to PICU was 4.1%. Conclusions:  The leading cause of admission was infectious and respiratory diseases. Children with MODS and co-morbidity had higher mortality. The overall mortality rate in our PICU was low. We conclude, a well-equipped intensive care unit with modern and innovative facilities leads to a good outcome.