[Pediatric emergencies in the Grenoble Medical Center]

In the Grenoble Medical Centre, pediatric emergency admissions have been drastically influenced by the opening of an Emergency Unit in May 1983. Our work was carried out one year after the opening in order to study the characteristics of the admitted children. The enquiry was done over 4 months, one month for each season of that year. A total of 1,382 children were included in the study. Thirty-four percent were seen for a medical advice (66% hospitalized). Children seen for medical advice are younger and mostly migrants. They live close to the hospital and are brought most often for fever. Fifty one per cent directly brought to the hospital by their parents for a first pediatric advice (49% were sent by their personal physician). Children directly brought by their parents are in majority infants and migrants. They are mostly admitted at night and morning and during the week-end. They are more frequently followed within the public mother-child health protection system ("Service de Protection Maternelle et Infantile", PMI).