Evaluation Of Children Admitted To Emergency Department Who Require Special Care

Introduction and aim: Developing medical technologies have prolonged the life expectancy of critically ill individuals. The number of children who cannot perform their own activity by themselves so become devices dependent is increasing day by day. In this study, we aimed to examine the children applied to the pediatric emergency department who require special care in our region. Method: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study in a pediatric emergency department of a tertiary university hospital. In 2017, patients who were admitted to the emergency department, and have any technological device such as mechanical ventilator, enteral feeding catheter or a tracheostomy cannula were included in the study. Results: In this study, 2106 emergency department applications were examined. A total of 36 patients (9 girls (25%), 27 boys (75%)) with tracheostomy were included in the study. 36 cases (100%) have tracheostomy cannulae, 21 (58.3%) have home typed mechanical ventilators and 21 (58.3%) have enteral feeding catheters. The mean age of performing tracheostomy was 25.7 ± 11 (0.3-180) months. The most common cause of tracheostomy was prolonged intubation. The most common causes of readmission to emergency department were neurological conditions, elective control and treatment of infectious diseases. Of the emergency department admissions, 8.7% of the patients were hospitalized and 1.4% were admitted to the intensive care unit. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed in 21 (58.3%) cases and in six (16.7%) patients died. Conclusion: Tracheostomy is associated with serious mortality and morbidity. This is a serious problem for both the individual and his / her family. Developing either preventive health services or palliative care centers will share the workload on the emergence departments. So we believe that there will be better quality service