title: Pattern of in-hospital pediatric mortality over a 3-year period at University teaching hospitals in Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Causes of death are different and very important for policy makers in different regions. This study was designed to analyze the data for our in-patient children mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study from March 2011 to March 2013, all patients from 2 months to 18 years who died in pediatric intensive care unit, emergency room or medical pediatric wards in the teaching hospitals were studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From a total of 18,915 admissions during a 2-year-period, 256 deaths occurred with a mean age of 4.3 ± 5 years and mortality 1.35%. An underlying disease was present in 70.7% of the patients and in 88.5% of them the leading causes of death were related to the underlying diseases. The most common underlying diseases were congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathy in 50 (27.6%). The four main causes of deaths were sepsis (14.8%), pneumonia (14.5%), congestive heart failure (9.8%), and hepatic encephalopathy (9.8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We may conclude that after sepsis and pneumonia, congestive heart failure, and hepatic encephalopathy are the leading causes of death. Most patients who died had underlying diseases including malignancies, heart and liver diseases as the most common causes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Amin
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fallahzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Sophia T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Abdehou
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Jafar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hassanzadeh
authors.affiliation: Nemazee Hospital, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fallhzadeh
authors.affiliation: Shiraz Nephro-Urology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, John C. McDonald Regional Transplant Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Mohammad Hossein
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Fallahzadeh
authors.affiliation: Shiraz Nephro-Urology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, John C. McDonald Regional Transplant Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Malekmakan
keywords: Causes; children; hospital admission; mortality; underlying diseases