RESUMO
PURPOSE: We studied a clinical analysis of pediatric patients who visited the emergency medical center of Yeungnam University Hospital to compare the characteristics of pediatric emergency patients after year 2000 with the previous studies. METHODS: We reviewed 7, 034 children under the age of 15 years who visited the emergency medical center of Yeungnam University Hospital during the 2 year period from January 2001 to December 2002, and then we performed a clinical and statistical analysis. We analyzed the pediatric patients according to gender, age, season, day of the week, time of the visit, the disease classification and the final disposition of the patients. RESULTS: Among the patients who visited the emergency room, 15.6% of the total emergency patients were under the age of 15. The male to female ratio was 1.6: 1. Among the 7, 034 pediatric patients, the most common age group was between 1 year and under 3 years of age (26.9%). The peak seasonal incidence was early summer and spring, especially during June (11.2%) and May (10.6 %). The peak incidence day of the week was Sunday (24.8%) and the peak time when the emergency pediatric patients visited the emergency room was between 20 and 24 o'clock (28.8%). The distribution of diseases, according to ICD-10 system, were injury and poisoning (30.4%), diseases of the respiratory system (22.8%), and diseases of the digestive system (14.6%). 30% of total pediatric patients were admitted to the hospital. CONCLUSION: After year 2000, as compared with the previous studies, the proportions of emergency pediatric patients has decreased. The distribution of diseases was not much different from the previous studies and the proportions of non-urgent diseases, such as acute nasopharyngitis or acute gastroenteritis, were still high. These result have come about due to the declining birth rate and changes of the medical system in Korea.