Community-acquired pneumonia in the pediatric intensive care unit

Abstract

Introduction: severe community-acquired pneumonia has not been characterized at the Pediatric Teaching Hospital ¨Pedro Agustín Pérez¨ in Guantanamo.

Objective: to profile this affection at the Intensive Care Unit of the already cited institution in the period 2016-2019.

Method: a descriptive, longitudinal and retrospective study was carried out. The study population was made out of all the patients in the intensive care unit in that period of time (N=153). The variables analyzed were: gender, age, microbiological diagnosis, antimicrobial therapy, mechanical ventilation application, medical procedures applied, complications, in-hospital stay, state at the time of discharge and cause of death. Results were presented in tables and were summed up in absolute and cumulative frequencies.

Results: most patients were male, ranging from 1 to 4 years of age (30.7 %). Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common infection (36.0 %). 16.3 % if the cases required mechanical ventilation and the 22.9 % presented some complication, the most common being the parapneumonic pleural effusion (22.5 %). 96.4 % of the patients were discharged alive, and the main cause of death was septic shock (57.2 %).

Conclusions: pneumonia remains a frequent pathology in patients in pediatric age; and prevails in male patients as well. After vaccination campaigns started, the Streptococcus pneumoniae emerged as the main bacterial pathogen to cause infections at any age, especially in patients below the 5 years of age.