Introduction:

Pneumonia is a serious health problem because it is a frequent cause of infant morbidity and mortality worldwide.

Objective:

To describe the behavior of severe pneumonia in a group of patients admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of Borrás-Marfán Pediatric Hospital.

Material and Methods:

An observational, descriptive and retrospective study was conducted in 223 patients with the diagnosis of severe pneumonia admitted to the aforementioned intensive care service from August 2015 to December 2019. The sample was characterized according to demographic variables, complications, invasive procedures performed, microbiological isolation, type of antibiotics used, and the number of days spent in the hospital. Descriptive statistics was used for the analysis of results.

Results:

The most representative age group was 1-4 years, with a slight predominance of males. The most frequent complications were pleural effusion, pneumatocele and pneumothorax. In this group, 40.81 % of the cases required thoracentesis and 33.18 % underwent pleurotomy. The main isolated germ was the Streptococcus Pneumoniae and most of the patients needed treatment with two antibiotics.

Conclusions:

During the period studied, the principal complication of pneumonia was the pleural effusion. Approximately half of the cases underwent thoracentesis and pleurotomy and good results were achieved. The use of two antibiotics according to established protocols were effective, too.

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