Abstract

VALON RODRIGUEZ, Angel Onel; RICARDO SAINT-FELIX, Farah María; HERRERO AGUIRRE, Hidelisa  and  LEGRA RODRIGUEZ, Rafael. Clinical and epidemiological characterization of patients with acute respiratory failure in a pediatric intensive care unit. MEDISAN [online]. 2013, vol.17, n.7, pp.1087-1094. ISSN 1029-3019.

A descriptive and cross-sectional study of 40 patients with acute respiratory failure, admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of "Dr. Juan de la Cruz Martínez Maceira" Northern Children Hospital in Santiago de Cuba was carried out from January to March, 2012, in order to characterize them according to some variables of interest. Among the main results of the series there were the age group 0-11 months (37.5%), the born children weighting under 2 500 g (52.5%), those affected who didn't have breastfeeding with the highest number of complications (71.4%), mainly the breathing complications (42.6%); the presence of smokers at home as an important risk factor (77.5%), the bacterial pneumonia as cause of the morbid process (42.5%) and the malnourished patients (67.5%). It could be concluded that the acute respiratory failure is a frequent disorder which, not infrequently, produces damages in the children who suffer it.

Keywords : acute respiratory failure; child; bacterial pneumonia; breastfeeding; malnutrition; Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

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