J Korean Pediatr Soc.  2001 Sep;44(9):987-991.

Clinical Analysis of Pediatric Death in Emergency Room

• Lee BH
• Kim MJ
• Lee HK
• Lee YH
• Choi KH
• Song SH
• Lee SB
• Do BS

Abstract

PURPOSE: Sudden, unexpected pediatric death triggers acute grief in most survivors. In this study, we analyzed the pediatric death in emergency room in order to find out the factors for minimized unexpected pediatric death and increase awareness of these conditions.
METHODS
We performed a review on the records of 63 patients under the age of 16 years who died before and after admission to the emergency room of Yeungnam University Hospital during a 5 year period from January 1996 to December 2000.
RESULTS
Among the total of 63 patients who died, 33 were male(52.4%) and 30 were female (47.6%). The most prevalent age group was between 1 month and 1 year of age(38%). We classified 3 categories by the direct cause of death, disease 21 cases(33%), accident 19 cases(30%), unknown 23 cases(37%) respectively. Among 23 cases of unknown cause of death, 13 cases(56.5 %) had been placed under medical attention for underlying diseases : these were 7 cases of neurologic disorder(30.4%) 5 cases of congenital heart disease 5 cases(21.7%) and 1 case of metabolic disease(4.4%). The most common types of accident were traffic accident(10 cases; 52.6%) and the next were drowning(4 cases; 21%), asphyxia(3 cases; 15.8%).
CONCLUSION
In unexpected pediatric death, among unknown causes of death, the number of patients who had an underlying disease was greater than these patients who did not. We conclude, more attention needs to be paid to underlying disease, especially congenital heart disease and neurologic disease. A parents teaching program is necessary emergency for situations. This would decrease cases of unexpected pediatric death.

Keyword

Pediatric death; Emergency room

MeSH Terms

Cause of Death
Emergencies*
Emergency Service, Hospital*
Female
Grief
Heart Defects, Congenital
Humans
Parents
Survivors