Abstract
Pneumonia is one of the largest killers of children under five years of age around the world. The present study was done to study the clinical features, outcome, bacteriological profile and radiological features of pneumonia in children. This was a descriptive study of pneumonia conducted on 100 children in the age group of 1 month to 12 years, with clinical features of tachypnoea as per WHO criteria and chest indrawing, who got admitted in pediatric wards of Rajah Muthiah Medical college, Annamalai University, Chidambaram during November 2014 to August 2016.Study showed that 82% of the children belonged to the age group of 1-month - 5year, male to female ratio was 1.17:1. Rapid breathing/ respiratory distress (100%), cough (100%) and fever (99%) were the most common symptoms. Refusal of feeds was present in 24% cases. Tachypnoea (100%), chest retractions (100%) and crepitations (82%) were the most common signs. Diarrhoea (7%), meningitis(3%) ,CCF(1%)were the associated illness. 71% were breast-fed and 29% were given bottle feeds. 55% were anemic. 62% had grade 1 and 2, 30% had grade 3 and 4 PEM. From the study, it was concluded that pneumonia is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in children. Blood culture will not give much information regarding etiology of pneumonia. Chest X-ray is valuable aid in the diagnosis of pneumonia in children.
Key Words: Pneumonia, WHO criteria, PEM, Mortality.
References
1. Park K. Acute respiratory infections. In: Park’s text book of preventive and social medicine, 23rd ed. Jabalapur: M/s Banaras-idas Bhanot publishers; 2015. p.167-74.
2. Govt.of.India (2014), National health profile 2013, DGHS, Ministry of health and family welfare.
3. Jain S, Williams DJ, Arnold SR, Ampofo K, Bramley AM et al for the CDC EPIC study team. Community-Acquired Pneu-monia Requiring Hospitalization among U.S. Children N Engl J Med 2015; 372:835-45.
4. Sehgal V, Sethi GR, Sachdev HPS, Satyanarayana V. Predictors of mortality on subjets hospitalized with acute lower respiratory tract infections. Indian Pediatr, 1997; 34: 213-9.
5. Drummond P, Clark J, Wheeler J, Galloway A, Freeman R, Cant A. Community acquired pneumonia-a prospective UK study. Arch Dis Child 2000; 83: 408-12.
6. Kabra SK, Broor S, Lodha R, Maitreyi RS, Ghosh M, Pandey RM, et al.Can we identify acute severe viral lower respiratory tract infection clinically? Indian Pediatr 2004; 41: 245-9.
7. Kumar N, Singh N, Locham KK, Garg R, Sarwal D. Clinical evaluation of acute respiratory distress and chest wheezing in infants. Indian Pediatr 2002; 39: 478-83.
8. Gupta D, Mishra S, Chaturvedi P. Fast breathing in the diagnosis of pneumonia-a reassessment.1996; 42: 196-9 J Trop Pediatr .
9. Margolis P, Gadomski A. The rational clinical examination. Does this infant have pneumonia? JAMA 1998; 279: 308-13.
10. Palafox M, Guiscafre H, Reyes H, Mufioz O, Martinez H. Diagnostic value of tachy-pnoea in pneumonia defined radiologi-cally. Arch Dis Child 2000; 82: 41-5.
11. Reddaiah VP, Kapoor SK. Acute respiratory infections in under five: Experience at comprehensive rural health services project hospital Ballabgarh. Indian J Community Med 1995; 20: 1-4.
12. Deivanayagam N, Nedunchelian K, Ramaswamy S, Sudhandirakannan, Ratna SR. Risk factors for fatal pneumonia: A case control study. Indian Pediatr, 1992; 29: 1529-32.
13. Heaton P, Arthur K. The utility of chest radiography in the follow up of pneumonia. N Z Med J 1998; 111: 315-7.
14. Zukin DD, Hoffman JR, Cleveland RH, Kushner DC, Herman TE. Correlation of pulmonary signs and symptoms with chest radiographs in the pediatric age group. Ann Emerg Med 1986; 15: 792-6.
15. Karambelkar GR, Agarkhedkar S, Karwa S,Singhania S, Mane V. Disease pattern and bacteriology of childhood pneumonia in western India.Int J Pharm Biomed Sci2012,3(4),177-80.ISSN No:0976-5263.
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v4i10.79
