Abstract:

Background Information: SAM is common in children under the ages of 5 years where it is affecting nearly 20 million children worldwide, with majority of the cases in the developing countries In Africa, it was estimated that about 5%- 15% of deaths in children age ranging from 0 to 59 months are due to SAM, accounting for about 1-2 million deaths yearly. In sub Saharan Africa the prevalence of SAM in children is about 2%. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends more research in facilities in the clinical profile and treatment outcome in relation to risk factors and standard follow up care so as to help in policy making, outreach planning and allocation of resources. This study evaluated the clinical profile and treatment outcome of children with Severe Acute Malnutrition admitted at Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania.

Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted at Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza. Case files of patients admitted in General Pediatrics ward over the period of one year (November, 2021 to October, 2022) with a diagnosis of SAM were reviewed. A checklist was used to collect the information on their sociodemographics, type of malnutrition, anthropometric characteristics, reason for admission, known chronic illnesses, complications, days of hospitalization and outcome. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.

Results: There were 173 cases of SAM during the study period: 95 (54.9%) males and 78 (45.1%) females. The mean Age was 16.61 months. Most cases were admitted in the months of March, September and January. There were 123 (71.1%) cases of marasmus, 30 (17.3%) cases of kwashiorkor and 20 (11.6%) cases of marasmic kwashiorkor. The most common reason for admission was failure to thrive and infection was the most common morbidity associated with SAM. There were 34 (19.7%) children with SAM who died but 139 (80.3%) recovered and they were discharged. The mean number of days of hospitalization was 13.35 days. Pulse rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and temperature were vitals that were taken and whenever documented weight, height and MUAC were the anthropometrics documented.

Conclusion: Marasmus remains the most common form of SAM, and infection the most common comorbidity, however majority of our cases were discharged without any noticeable complication. BMC have good outcomes in terms of successful discharges also the mortality rate was <20% and most patients that died had other comorbidities.