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Archivos de Pediatría del Uruguay
On-line version ISSN 1688-1249
Abstract
GARCIA GARIGLIO, LORELEY and LUSTEMBERG, ANTONIO. Dolor torácico en un departamento de emergencia. Arch. Pediatr. Urug. [online]. 2005, vol.76, n.2, pp.111-114. ISSN 1688-1249.
Summary Introduction: pediatric chest pain is the reason of a frequent enquiry in the pediatric emergency departments; they often create great anxiety not only to the parents but also to the children themselves. In the bibliography we highlight that about 6 from 1.000 enquiries are related to this symphtom. The most frequent causes of the paediatric chest pain are of musculoskeletal, idiopathic, psycogenic, pain of respiratory origin, gastrointestinal disorders and cardiac problems. We didn’t find any bibliography about this topic in our media, so we were motivated to do the present research. Objectives: general ones: to get to know the frequency of the presentation of this sympthom in the population who is attended in the Pediatric Emergency Department of the Pereira Rossell Hospital. Specific ones: to get to know the clinical, etiological characteristics, paraclinical studies done and the evolution of those patients. Material and methods: observational, descriptive, prospective studies, done in the Pediatric Emergency Department of the Pereira Rossell Hospital, in the period from December 2002 to June 2004. All the patients within the ages between 4 and 15 years old who enquired by chest pain were included, without any other exclusion criteria. A pre-coded file of data recollection was made; sympthoms and clinical signs were analyzed, evolution time, all the required exams, admission and leaving diagnosis as well as the clinical evolution were also analyzed by a telephone follow-up. Results: 55 patients were included, medium age of presentation of 11 years old, 60% of the enquiries were females, 94,5% had an evolution time of less than 48 hours from the beginning of the pain, 74% had attached sympthoms. The chest X-rays were asked in 53 patients, being normal in the 74% of the cases. As a final diagnose the first place was for osteocondritis 47%, then pneumonia 14, 5%, anguish crisis 12,7%, idiopathic chest pain 11%. From the total of patients 7 needed to be admitted to hospital, being their diagnose: pneumonia (n=4), two with pleural haemorrhage, neumotorax (n=2) pericarditis (n=1). All of them had a good evolution. Conclusions: in our study the chest pain was the reason of a not very frequent enquiry, most of the cases it wasn’t associated with a serious illness; all the patients had a good evolution.
Keywords : PAIN; THORAX.