Pattern and outcome of postneonatal pediatric emergencies in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, South East Nigeria

Abstract

Infectious diseases remain a menace in our environment with the eventual outcome worsened by late presentation to an appropriate health facility. There is an urgent need to create public awareness on the need to seek prompt medical attention for sick children.

Epidemiology of Pediatric Medical Emergencies at the Kindu Reference General Hospital (HGRK): State of Affairs and Perspectives

“…In our series, more than 70% of children with emergency signs are under five with an average age of 2.1 years. Our observation corroborates with those of Ndukwu [4], Fatou [11], Dan [5] and Atanda [6]. This result is explained by the vulnerability of this age group and its susceptibility to several pathologies that weaken its immune status.…”

“…Many child deaths in hospitals occur within 24 hours of admission, whereas they could be avoided if very sick children are identified shortly after arrival and treatment is initiated immediately [1] [4]. These deaths are caused by conditions that are immediately life-threatening.…”

The Peculiarity of Presenting Signs and Symptoms among Paediatric Patients Aged Less than 16 Years in a Mixed University Emergency Department

“…In contrast, Australasian authors found that children of 0-4 years of age represented the greatest absolute number of ED presentations in a mixed ED, consistently over time and across all triage categories [9]. In an Indian hospital, subjects 0-5 years of age constituted 78.8% of the study population [3]. Among all children who presented to the ED with face lacerations, not surprisingly, preschool-aged children predominated by far among the study population (34.9% of all study subjects including adults) [10].…”

“…In comparison to other countries, there is paucity of Swiss data in the published literature on the distribution of presenting medical and surgical complaints in children who visit a paediatric, adult or mixed ED [1][2][3][4][5]. Authors from an English institution have found that breathing difficulty (20.1%), febrile illness (14.1%) and diarrhoea with or without vomiting (14.0%), rash (8.6%) and cough (6.7%) make up most of the medical problems among children aged 1 to 16 years presenting to the PED [1].…”

Clinico - demographic factors associated with diarrhoeal disease outcome in under-five children: A Nigerian tertiary hospital experience

“…3 The significantly worse outcome seen in those with longer duration of illness has been documented in other studies. 12,17,18 This is expected because the longer lasting a diarrhoea episode is, and the longer it takes before effective and appropriate care is sought for a child with diarrhoeal disease, the more likely it is for serious and unsalvageable physiologic aberrations to set in. The poor clinical state at presentation of a significant percentage of the children in our study could be an indirect reflection of the health seeking attitude and literacy level of the population studied.…”