title: Asthma changes at a pediatric intensive care unit after 10 years: Observational study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the change in the management, and outcome of children with acute severe asthma (ASA) admitted to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at tertiary institute, as compared to previously published report in 2003.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a retrospective observational study. All consecutive pediatric ASA patients who were admitted to PICU during the study period were included. The data were extracted from PICU database and medical records. The Cohort in this study (2013 Cohort) was compared with the Cohort of ASA, which was published in 2003 from the same institution (2003 Cohort).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In comparison to previous 2003 Cohort, current Cohort (2013) revealed higher mean age (5.5 vs. 3.6 years; P ≤ 0.001), higher rate of PICU admission (20.3% vs. 3.6%; P ≤ 0.007), less patients who received maintenance inhaled steroids (43.3% vs. 62.4%; P ≤ 0.03), less patients with pH <7.3 (17.9% vs. 42.9%; P ≤ 0.001). There were more patients in 2013 Cohort who received: Inhaled Ipratropium bromide (97% vs. 68%; P ≤ 0.001), intravenous magnesium sulfate (68.2% vs. none), intravenous salbutamol (13.6% vs. 3.6%; P ≤ 0.015), and noninvasive ventilation (NIV) (35.8% vs. none) while no patients were treated with theophylline (none vs. 62.5%). The median length of stay (LOS) was 2 days while mean LOS was half a day longer in the 2013 Cohort. None of our patients required intubation, and there was no mortality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed slight shift toward older age, considerably increased the rate of PICU admission, increased utilization of Ipratropium bromide, magnesium sulfate, and NIV as important modalities of treatment.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ayman A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Al-Eyadhy
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohamad-Hani
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Temsah
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ali A N
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alhaboob
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abdulmalik K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Aldubayan
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Nasser A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Almousa
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abdulrahman M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Alsharidah
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohammed I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Alangari
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abdulrahman M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Alshaya
keywords: Asthma; Saudi; children; critical care; epidemiology; noninvasive ventilation; pediatric; status asthmaticus