Application of the Brighton scale and its association with the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients with respiratory pathologies in a tertiary hospital in Panama City, Panama

Abstract

Introduction: The Pediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) is a set of parameters analyzed in pediatric patients that determine the probability of clinical deterioration. Material and methods: Observational, retrospective, analytical study in patients with respiratory disease from 1 month to 15 years of age, transferred from the general hospitalization ward to the intensive care unit at Hospital del Niño Dr. José Renán Esquivel, from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021, for which we calculated two Pediatric Early Warning Scale (PEWS) scores, with the information recorded in the two medical notes, prior to transfer. Results: 61% transferred patients were males; and 72% were infants. The mean age at admission was 30 months (2 years and 6 months). The main PEWS range found was 3-4 for both sexes. Most of the patients presented comorbidities and the main one was congenital heart disease (12%). 70.7% patients had pneumonia with a predominant PEWS of 3-4. Means of 8.2 days of hospital stay in the ward, 10.8 days in the intensive care unit, and 29.1 days of total hospital stay were obtained, with no statistically significant association between these and the PEWS values ​​obtained. 14% (n=11) of the patients died. Conclusions: The main respiratory pathology, sex, and age group transferred to the intensive care unit were pneumonia, males, and infants, respectively. The main comorbidity was congenital heart disease. A 0-2 PEWS range was associated with longer means of stay. We did not find a statistically significant association between the studied variables and the ​​obtained PEWS.