Pediatric Practice and Research

Öz

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the epidemiological, demographic, diagnostic and seasonal distribution of the patients who were hospitalized from our pediatric emergency department to pediatric intensive care units and to ensure that the decision on the need for intensive care and the appropriate intensive care unit decision processes proceed accurately and quickly.
Methods: Between January 2018 and December 2022, data on patients aged 0-18 years who were admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Department of Ümraniye Training and Research Hospital between January 2018 and December 2022 and who were hospitalized in any pediatric intensive care unit from the pediatric emergency department were retrospectively scanned from the hospital database. The diagnosis, age, gender, dates of admission to the emergency department, and the characteristics of referrals to external centers were retrospectively examined within the scope of the study.
Results: A total of 840 patients, 400 girls (47.6%) and 440 boys (52.4%), were included in the study. The mean length of stay in the pediatric emergency department was 236.7445 minutes (3.9457 hours).Patients were most commonly admitted to the intensive care unit with diagnoses of respiratory system (37.14%), neurological system (20.35%) and poisoning (12.5%). While more hospitalizations were observed in November (n=90, 10.7%) and January (n=89, 10.6%), the least hospitalizations were observed in July (n=60, 7.14%) and August (n=60, 7.14%). Of the patients hospitalized in pediatric intensive care, 70.35% were transferred to the intensive care unit of our own hospital and 29.64% were transferred to pediatric intensive care units of external centers.
Conclusions: Diagnostic, demographic and temporal examination of critically ill patients in the emergency department will facilitate the decision-making process for intensive care needs, timely access to appropriate healthcare services and healthcare planning.