title: Pattern of Pediatric Admissions in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Central Nepal.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An understanding of the epidemiological trend in hospital admissions, including morbidity and mortality patterns and the economic impact, is critical for healthcare planning and appropriate resource allocation. As we find very few literature on the pattern of paediatric admissions outside Kathmandu Valley, it is essential to conduct studies in the various parts of the country to determine the paediatric inpatient burden as well resource allocations.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective study was carried out at Department of Pediatrics, College of Medical Sciences-Teaching Hospital, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal over a period of one year. All the admissions were analyzed for age, sex, address, seasonal variation, frequency of diseases according to the organ system involved, duration of hospital stay, and the outcome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of the total 814 cases admitted 68.8% of the patients were younger than five years. There was male preponderance with male to female ratio of 1.9:1. Majority (43.6%) admissions were from Chitwan itself. Respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurologic conditions were the main cause for admission. The mean duration of hospital stay was 5.28 days and the mortality was only 0.1%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study under five-year patients contributed to 2/3rd of the hospital admissions. Respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurologic conditions were the main cause for admission with pneumonia, URTI and acute gastroenteritis being the most common diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal.
authors.forename: B K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Sarmah
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thapa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009390:Nepal / Q000453:epidemiology; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012621:Seasons; D017678:Sex Distribution; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers
keywords: admission; pattern; pediatric.