AN AUDIT OF CASES ADMITTED IN THE CHILDREN EMERGENCY WARD IN A NIGERIAN TERTIARY HOSPITAL

Objective: Knowledge of cause-specific morbidity and mortality is essential for understanding the overall epidemiological profile of disease in a population. The aim of this study was to audit the morbidity and mortality pattern of cases admitted into the children emergency ward of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching (UPTH), Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Methodology: This was a prospective cross sectional study of children from one month to 16 years who were admitted into the children emergency ward of the UPTH from 1st January 2008 to 31st December 2008. Information collected included age, gender, presenting features, diagnosis, complications and outcome. Data collected was entered into a spread sheet using SPSS 15.0 for Windows® statistical software which was also used for analysis. Results: A total of 2,009 children comprising of 1,105(55%) males and 904(45%) females were admitted to the Children emergency during the study period. Common diagnoses, were malaria 452(22.5%), diarrhoeal diseases 276(13.7%) and bronchopneumonia 261(12.9%). Fever, fast breathing, anaemia and convulsions were the most frequently documented clinical features. The overall mortality was 4.5%. More than 80% of the deaths occurred in children below the age of five years. Malaria and HIV infections were responsible for more than one third of the deaths in the emergency ward. Conclusion: Malaria, Diarhoeal diseases and HIV are important causes of childhood morbidity and mortality. There is need for effective control measures for prevention of these diseases.