Long-stay pediatric intensive care unit patients.

New issues have arisen in pediatric intensive care units, especially concerning long-stay patients. The aims of the present study were to describe the etiologic factors of these long-stay patients and to recognize the comorbidities. Material and methods. - Ninety-five patients who had a total of 100 hospitalizations of more than 30 days were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit at Robert-Debre Hospital during a 3-year period (1993-1995); this accounted for 9.1% of total admissions. We retrospectively reviewed these 100 long-stay hospitalisations. Results. - Most of these patients were newborns (65%). Patients with severe congenital anomalies (44 patients) and very premature infants (26 patients) constituted the majority of long-stay patients. The mean duration of mechanical ventilation for the 95 patients was 110 days (ranges 17-789 days). Two factors of comorbidity were found: gastroesophageal reflux (41% of cases) and nosocomial infections (89% of cases). Conclusion. - In order to prevent long stays, pediatric intensive care units must be directed toward these factors. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.