@article{ref1,
title="Deaths in a paediatric intensive care unit: A review over three years",
journal="Sri Lanka journal of child health",
year="2012",
author="Khositseth, Anant and Anantasit, Nattachai and Vaewpanich, Jarin",
volume="41",
number="4",
pages="-",
abstract="Background: Deaths in paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) are sometimes unavoidable. The decision to withdraw or withhold treatment is important especially in places where there are limited resources.  Objective: To evaluate the modes of death and underlying diseases of patients' deaths in a PICU.  Method: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical features and management of consecutive non-survivors in the PICU at a tertiary care University Hospital in a developing country over a three-year period.  Results: Of 1,389 admissions, 110 (8%) patients died. The median age of the deaths was 4.1 years. Most (86%) patients had underlying diseases including congenital heart diseases (27%) and malignancies (23%). Forty-seven patients died with active treatment (AT), 60 died with life support limitation (LSL), and 3 had brain death (BD). The median length of stay (LOS) in AT group was 3 days and this was not significantly different (p=0.056) from the median LOS in LSL group which was 5 days. LOS less than 3 days, postoperative cases and underlying diseases of the cardiovascular system were factors associated with the AT group. The three common complications leading to death were multi-organ failure, septicaemia with septic shock and respiratory failure.  Conclusions: Congenital heart diseases and malignancies were the two common underlying diseases found in non-survivors. LSL was the common mode of death in PICU.<p />",
language="en",
issn="1391-5452",
doi="10.4038/sljch.v41i4.4977",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljch.v41i4.4977"
}