Epidemiologic variation in pediatric ear, nose, and throat diseases: pediatric emergency admissions in two different regions of Turkey

Abstract

Introduction: Acute pediatric ear, nose, and throat (ENT) diseases are common, but the causes may vary in different regions. Early diagnosis and suitable management modalities can decrease morbidity and/or mortality rates.

Method: In two different university hospitals in Turkey, pediatric ENT diseases were evaluated retrospectively and recorded. We evaluated 5473 patients at Eskisehir Osmangazi University, and 1954 patients at Malatya Inonu University, during the 3- year study period.

Results: The study population included 3013 males (56.5%) and 2460 females (43.5%) from Eskisehir Osmangazi University and 852 males (43.6%) and 1102 females (56.4%) from Inonu University. The age range of all patients was from 1 month to 17 years; mean age was 6.3 years for patients from Eskisehir Osmangazi and 9.6 years for patients from Inonu. At Eskisehir Osmangazi, the most common causes of admittance were acute tonsillitis (2314 cases, 42.3%), upper respiratory tract infections  (1763, 32.22%), acute otitis media (453, (8.28%), foreign bodies (106,1.94%), and epistaxis (141, 2.58%). Other less common causes included maxillofacial traumas (2.74%), croup (2.76%), epiglottitis (0.09%), retropharyngeal abscess (0.03%), otitis externa (2.16%) and acute sinusitis (4.9%). At Inonu, 930 (47.6%) patients had acute otitis media, 272 (13.9%) patients had epistaxis, 265 (13.6%) patients had acute tonsillitis, and 233 (11.9%) patients had upper respiratory tract infection. Other causes included foreign bodies (10.6%), dysphagia (0.8%), and otitis externa (1.6%). Infectious diseases were more common in patients aged 1-6 months at Eskisehir and in patients aged 1 month to2 years at Inonu.

Conclusion: Pediatric emergency physicians successfully treated more than 90% of the ENT patients in our study population. Training for emergency room management of pediatric ENT diseases is important to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations. The etiology of pediatric emergency cases differs greatly between regions, even in the same country.

Keywords

• Pediatric emergency
• ENT diseases
• emergency

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