ABSTRACT
Purpose - to study the features of COVID-19 in hospitalized children. Materials and methods. Retrospective multicenter clinical and epidemiological study which includes 328 hospitalized children with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 for the period from January to August 2021. Results, the highest specific weight among all hospitalized children falls on children of the first year (75/328;22.8%), in general, early childhood (up to 3 years) accounted for 43%(141/328) of all hospitalizations of children with COVID-19. Common symptoms of the disease included fever, upper respiratory symptoms, intoxication, diarrhea. In 99/328 (30.1%) hospitalized children pneumonia has developed, 50/99 (50.5%) of which needed oxygen support, 10/99 (10.1%) - mechanical ventilation. Pneumonia was most common in children under 1 year, children of the first 5 years of life accounted for more than a half of all pneumonia cases (53/99;53,5%). 13/328 (3.9%) children were hospitalized to the intensive care unit. Comorbidities including endocrine, oncological, neurological diseases, congenital malformations and others, were noted n 24.6% of hospitalized children. In children with comorbid conditions, pneumonia occurred 2 times more often (relative risk factor RR=1.98, CI 95%), the relative risk of getting into resuscitation RR in the presence of comorbidity is 10.86 (CI 95%). In addition to children with pneumonia, oxygen support or mechanical ventilation required children with obstructive syndrome, pancytopenia, convulsions. The largest proportion of comorbidities in patients hospitalized to the intensive care unit were diseases of the nervous system (congenital malformations of the CNS, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, astrocytoma). Lymphopenia and thrombocytopenia were most commonly associated with severe COVID-19. Conclusions. Children of all ages are susceptible to COVID-19. The main risk factors for severe disease are early age and the presence of comorbid conditions, among which the most relevant are diabetes, obesity, neurological diseases and cancer. The presence of comorbidities in children determines the priority groups for the prevention of coronavirus infection through vaccination. © 2022 by the Author(s).