Evaluation of Our Paediatric Patients Hospitalised with Covid-19 Diagnosis: Single Centre Experience

We analyses separate age groups for in-hospital COVID pediatric patients clinical symptoms, lab tests, and treatment efforts. We also wanted to see if having another illness or a patient's nutritional condition could change the way the disease unfolds.

Between July 2020 and September 2021, 90 pediatric patients (aged 1 month-18 years) with positive PCR and/or antibody tests who were hospitalised in our hospital were included in the study. Patients were classified according to age groups (0-2, 2-5, 5-12, >12 years), disease severity and presence of comorbidities. Demographic characteristics, clinical findings, laboratory parameters and radiological imaging were evaluated.

The disease had a mild course in 73.3% of the patients with a mean age of 87 months. In the youngest age group (0-2 years), fever (53.3%) and respiratory distress (26.7%) were more common and hospital stay was longer (median 7 days). Comorbidity rate (47.4%) was significantly higher in the moderate to severe disease group (p<0.001). The rates of elevated CRP (54.5%) and pathological chest radiography (36.4%) were higher in obese children. Recovery time was significantly longer in comorbid patients (7.3±2.4 days).

Our study suggests that COVID-19 does not affect all children in the same way-it appears to vary notably with age. In our observations, younger children and those with existing health conditions seem to require a bit more care and close monitoring to ensure the best outcomes.