Pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome

Abstract

There is a lack of epidemiological data related to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) among pediatric patients. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence, comorbidity and outcome in patients with ARDS treated in tertiary level pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). This retrospective cohort study included patients aged 1 month to 18 years treated at PICU during a five-year period (June 2004 to July 2009) that fulfilled all criteria for the diagnosis of ARDS according to the 1994 North American- European Consensus Conference on ARDS criteria. The incidence of ARDS among critically ill children older than 1 month was 5.7 cases per 1.000 patient-years. ARDS usually developed in a clinical framework of sepsis and severe lower respiratory tract infections. ARDS has a high share in mortality of PICU patients aged 1 month to 18 years, with a mortality rate of 25%, accounting for 10.71% of the total number of deaths in this age group. In patients with ARDS, fatal outcome is almost 6 times more frequent comparing to other life-threatened patients.