Clinical profiles and outcomes of children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit from the emergency department

The aim of this study was to describe clinical profiles and outcomes of children admitted directly from the Emergency Room (ER) to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of academic hospital. The medical records of all children (1 month to 16 years) admitted in PICU from ER, from January 2011 to December 2012 were reviewed. Of the 26,774 patients seen in the ER during the study period, 468 (1.7%) were admitted to the PICU which constituted about 41.5% (468/1127) of all the total PICU admissions. Sixty three percent (n=294) were under-five; males were 60.9% (285), 82.3% (385) were in medical category. Neurological and respiratory illnesses were the most common groups (> 50% of all ER admissions). Multi-organ dysfunction syndrome and co-morbidity were present in 25.2% (n=118) and 23.5% (n=110) respectively. The mean length of stay was 5 ± 3.7 hours. The case-fatality rate was 20.3% (n=95) as compared to the overall PICU mortality rate of 11.9% (n=135).