Abstract

Studies have shown that the nutritional condition of critically sick children at the time of admission, as well as its likely decline while they are hospitalized, may be used as a predictor of outcomes that are less favourable. The present study was done to study the effect of weight on mortality in P.IC.U. Materials and method: This Hospital based prospective observational study was done at TMMC & RC for a period of 18 months. The study included Children more than 1 month of age up to 18 years admitted to PICU were included in the study and Children with PICU stay of at least 24 hours were included in the study. All the admitted patients underwent necessary blood investigations such as complete haemogram including white blood cell count, differential count, and platelet count. On the day of admission, to assess platelet count, venous EDTA samples were sent to haematology laboratory and analysed by SYSMEX XN 350 Automated Haematology Analyser and low platelet count was further evaluated by peripheral blood smear. Results: The major symptoms were Fever (70.8%), Refusal to Feed (8.3%) and Edema (12.5%). Mortality was reported among 11.6% cases. The hemodynamic parameters (mean SBP, DBP and SPO2) Length of Hospital stay and was significantly more among subjects with underweight compared to overweight which was significantly more than normal weight. Conclusion: The current research demonstrated that critically sick children had a higher frequency of malnutrition than the general population. Children who are undernourished are more likely to need lengthy hospitalisation and ventilation.

Description

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