Frequency and risk factors for GI bleeding in childrenadmitted to the PICU of bahrami children's hospital

Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) associated with stress is an important complication in critically ill children admitted to the Intensive care unit (ICU), which can lead to serious complications and in some cases death. Only a limited number of studies have been conducted on the risk factors of gastrointestinal bleeding in Pediatric Intensive care unit (PICU), most studies have been conducted in the adults and neonates, therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of risk factors related to gastrointestinal bleeding in children admitted to the PICU.

This was a cross-sectional study. In this study, in a period of three years from (March 2016 to March 2019), all patients admitted to the PICU of Tehran Bahrami Children's Hospital were examined. The sample size was calculated 380. Demographic information, diagnosis during hospitalization, underlying disease, and initial tests during the first 24 hours of hospitalization were recorded in the checklist. To evaluate the demographic findings between patients with and without UGIB, chi-square and Fisher tests were used. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.

462 patients were studied, of which about (58%) were male. The mean age of the samples was 48 months and the average length of hospital stay in PICU was ten days. In general, (21.21%) of patients had gastrointestinal bleeding on the first day and (12.12%) on the second day of hospitalization. Gastrointestinal bleeding occurred in 50 patients (10.82%). Use of ventilator, pulmonary diseases, coagulation and blood diseases were significantly more common in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding than in children without gastrointestinal bleeding. Cardiac, neurological, hepatic, and renal disease were not significantly different in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding compared to children without gastrointestinal bleeding.

The occurrence of gastrointestinal bleeding in critically ill patients admitted to the PICU is a serious risk. The most important risk factor for upper gastrointestinal bleeding is mechanical ventilation. Other risk factors of gastrointestinal bleeding are lung disease, coagulation diseases, hematologic and oncologic disease.