ABSTRACT
Bronchial Asthma morbidity and mortality appear to be increasing. In our continuing endeavor to investigate the asthma problem in Puerto Rico, we describe the profile or group of pediatric patients admitted with asthma during a three month period of time to a community hospital. This is intended to be an initial step in developing a more detailed study to evaluate risk factors for hospitalization and need for acute care management of children with asthma in Puerto Rico. We evaluated a group of patients admitted with the diagnosis of asthma (ICD-9 code 493). One hundred and nineteen admissions between August 22 and November 21, 1990 (ninety days) were reviewed retrospectively. Data extracted from the records included demographic, laboratory and physiological variables. Results were similar for both sexes. Asthma admissions represented 29 percent of the total admissions with a hospital stay of 4.07 +/- 1.09 days and age of 4.62 +/- 4.29 years (mean +/- SD). No pulmonary function tests were performed as criteria for admission. In conclusion, this study suggests that the need for hospitalization in children with asthma in a community hospital is based on clinical evaluation. The use of pulmonary function tests, peak expiratory flow measurement or both may not be suitable for the majority of children admitted with asthma due to age. Other criteria for younger children with asthma need to be developed.
