Clinical Analysis of Pediatric Death in Emergency Room

Lee, Bo Hyeong; Kim, Mi Jung; Lee, Hyun Kyung; Lee, Young Hwan; Choi, Kwang Hae; Song, Seok Hun; Lee, Sam Beom; Do, Byung Soo

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Pediatric Society 2001;44(9):987-991.
Published online September 15, 2001.

Clinical Analysis of Pediatric Death in Emergency Room

Bo Hyeong Lee¹, Mi Jung Kim¹, Hyun Kyung Lee¹, Young Hwan Lee¹, Kwang Hae Choi¹, Seok Hun Song², Sam Beom Lee², Byung Soo Do²

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea
²Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Taegu, Korea

응급센터에서 사망 확인된 소아에 대한 임상적 고찰

이보형^¹^, 김미정^¹^, 이현경^¹^, 이영환^¹^, 최광해^¹^, 송석훈^²^, 이삼범^²^, 도병수^²

^¹영남대학교 의과대학 소아과학교실
^²영남대학교 의과대학 응급의학교실

Correspondence:
Kwang Hae Choi, Email: ckh@med.yu.ac.kr

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.

Key Words: Pediatric death, Emergency room