Abstract:

Background: Knowledge of the clinical profile and outcomes of critically ill children admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in developing countries aids with the identification of priorities and the resources needed to improve the outcome of critically ill patients. This study aimed to assess the admission pattern, outcomes, and associated factors of patients admitted to the PICU of Bugando Medical Centre, Mwanza-Tanzania.

Methods: This was a hospital-based retrospective study that involved children aged up to 12 years. Data were collected by going through the medical records and patient files from the time of admission in the PICU up to the time of discharge or death, using a content analytic checklist that was designed to cover all necessary information required. Data were entered into a computer using SPSS software and summarized using frequency distribution tables, and graphs, to determine the frequencies of reasons for PICU admission and outcomes.

Results: Out of 369 study participants, a great proportion of 81.6% were aged 2 to 12 years, with most study participants being males 65.6%. Most of the study participants were admitted with pneumonia (20.7%), septic shock (20.6%), meningitis (11.3%), and other conditions involving surgical with medical comorbidities and most of the study participants stayed at PICU for more than 7 days 62.1%. Length of stay and presence of comorbidity were found to be independent predictors of mortality (AOR = 10.26 (6.25 - 8.42) and (AOR=2.10 (1.98, 4.24) respectively.

Conclusion: The mortality rate of our PICU was 25.5 %. In this study, length of stay at the hospital and comorbidity were statistically significant predictors of mortality indicating the need for well-equipping and staffing the PICU to improve the outcome of such critically sick patients, and early diagnosis of comorbidities to prevent further deterioration.