• Anne-Mette Bæk Jensen, Kaare E Lundstrøm, Jes Reinholdt, Torsten Lauritsen, and Bo Mølholm Hansen.
• Department of Neonatology, Neonatalklinikken, Juliane Marie Centret, Rigshospitalet, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. ambjensen@dadlnet.dk
• Dan Med J. 2013 Jan 1;60(1):A4565.

IntroductionIntensive care of infants below one year of age has been centralized in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) related to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Rigshospitalet, the University Hospital in Copenhagen in eastern Denmark (approximately 2.5 million inhabitants) since 2002. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the experiences from the PICU.Material And MethodsA descriptive study including data from the 01.01.2002-31.12.2010-period from all the admissions to the PICU for infants below one year of age fulfilling one of two criteria: 1) born preterm and admitted to the department after 40 weeks of gestational age or 2) born at term and admitted to the department at an age -older than 28 days. Data were registered prospectively including information on primary diagnoses at admission, the need for mechanical ventilation and the duration of mechanical ventilation. Mortality was evaluated in the three year-period 2008-2010 by use of the Paediatric Index of Mortality 2 score (PIM2 score).ResultsThe nine-year period saw 927 admissions to the PICU and 355 infants received mechanical ventilation (median three days). The PIM2 score was 6.7% and the mortality was 6.7% in the period during which PIM2 score was registered. The incidence of mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure was 0.74/1,000 infants born in the -region.ConclusionThe experience from the NICU seems to -compensate for a low volume of infants in the PICU. The -incidence of mechanically ventilated infants due to respiratory disease in eastern Denmark is relatively low.FundingNot relevant.Trial RegistrationNot relevant. The study was not registered, as it is an observational study.

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