Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Admissions: A Single Centre Experience

Aim:During the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, pediatric emergency department visits and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions were significantly decreased. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of prevention strategies on PICU admissions during the COVID-19 outbreak.Materials and Methods:We included all patients admitted to a PICU from March 15th to September 15th, 2020, and those admitted in the same period in 2019. Incidence rates ratios (IRR) between the 2019 and 2020 cohorts (IRR-1) and restriction periods (March 2020-June 2020) and post-restriction periods (July 2020-September 2020) (IRR-2) were computed using Poisson modelling according to the data distribution. We analyzed the number of PICU admissions and the patient characteristics.Results:A total of 437 patients from 465 admissions were included. In 2020, the number of PICU admissions significantly decreased by 65% compared to 2019 [0.355 (0.287-0.440)]. During the restriction period, the number of PICU admissions was significantly lower by 40.3% compared to the post-restriction period [0.597 (0.493-0.722)]. Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) significantly decreased by 19% in the post-restriction period compared to the restriction period [0.811 (0.684-0.960)]. Cardiopulmonary arrests before PICU admission were significantly higher during the restriction period compared to the post-restriction period (15.5% vs 4.8%, p