Abstract

Objective: Thrombocytopenia is a common haematological finding in critically ill patients. Studies have shown that decreased platelet counts are associated with prolonged hospitalisation, increased costs, and mortality in adult populations. However, not enough studies have investigated the incidence of thrombocytopenia and the relationship between thrombocytopenia and the prognoses of paediatric patients who require treatment in the intensive care unit. We evaluated the effects of initial platelet counts on the outcomes of pediatric intensive care unit patients.

Material and Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the records of all patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit between October 2016 and December 2017. The relationship between the initial thrombocyte counts and the need of invasive mechanical ventilation and non-invasive mechanical ventilation,inotropic drug use, continuous renal replacement need, duration of hospitalization and mortality rate were investigated.

Results: Totally 387 patients were included in the study. Patient ages ranged from 1 month to 17 years, and the most frequent diagnoses were respiratory diseases (144 patients; 37.2%). There was a statistically significant relationship between thrombocyte levels of the first complete blood count performed during admission and invasive mechanical ventilation, non-invasive mechanical ventilation, inotropic drug use, mortality, acute kidney injury, and continuous renal replacement therapy. The odds ratios (ORs) and relationship between prognostic factors and thrombocytopenia were calculated using logistic regression models. ORs were 4.616 for continuous renal replasman therapy, 6.682 for inotropic drug use, and 3.649 for mortality. The survival analysis revealed that lower platelet counts were associated with poorer survival.

Conclusion: A low platelet count at the time of admission to the PICU should be considered an independent risk factor that increases mortality and morbidity and prolongs hospitalisation. Extensive care should be provided to this group of patients.

Keywords: Thrombocytopenia, critically ill children, prognosis

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Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

1.
Aygün F, Yiğit D. The Effect of Initial Platelet Value on The Outcome of Patients in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Turk J Pediatr Dis [Internet]. 2020 Jun. 26 [cited 2025 Aug. 23];14(4):371-8. Available from: https://turkjpediatrdis.org/article/view/684