Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pediatrics

Community acquired pneumonia is more severe and more prevalent in developing than in developed countries. In Egypt, pneumonia accounts for 11% of deaths in children aged less than 5 years old. This study was undertaken to evaluate the prognosis and outcome of pneumonia among Egyptian infants and children below 5 years old. This cross sectional study was conducted on 50 infants and children from 1 month old up to 5 years old who were admitted in Cairo university pediatric hospital with clinical and / or radiological diagnosis of pneumonia. Infants less than 1 year old were the most affected by pneumonia (70%) in our study group. Patients with co - morbid diseases (38%) had more severe pneumonia with more complications, need for ICU admission and more duration of hospital stay. Bacterial pneumonia and mixed (bacterial and viral; due to RSV) infections constituted a large proportion among identifiable causes of infections (36% and 12% of patients, respectively). Factors significantly associated with mortality were age in months, respiratory distress grades, grade of hypoxemia, O2 saturation, PO2 and quantitative RSV IgG, need for ICU admission, complications, recurrence of pneumonia and hospital stay duration (p {u02C2} 0.05). The survival probabilities of complicated cases decreased to 64.8% at the 25th day of hospitalization, using K - M test

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