Muhammad Saeed, Muhammad Saleem, Khalid Rashid, Madiha Siddique, Abdul Qadir.
Etiology and Outcome of Non-Traumatic Coma in Children.
Pak Paed J Jan ;41(2):80-3.

Introduction: Non-traumatic coma (NTC) is not an uncommon emergency in children and important cause of morbidity and mortality in our set up. The outcome of NTC may range from mild damage to severe impairment or even death. The underlying cause of coma and condition at the time of landing in the hospital, predict the outcome. Objective of the study: To determine the underlying cause and prognosis of non-traumatic coma in children (6 months to 12 years) presenting at Jinnah hospital, Lahore. Material andMethods: It is a cross-sectional study carried out over six months’ period from 01-04-2012 to 30-09-2012 in department of pediatrics at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. Results: This study consists of a total 80 patients. Age distribution shows 32 patients (40.0%) were less than 1 years of age, 28 patients (35.0%) were 1-5 years old and 20 patients (25.0%) were 6-12 years old. Mean age was 3.66 ± 3.49 years. According to distribution of cases by gender, 53 patients (66.3%) were male while remaining 27 patients (33.7%) were female. Out of 80 cases, 51 patients belong to infective etiology and 29 patients of non-infective etiology.Out of 80 patients, 31 patients (38.7%) expired (accidents and infectious etiology) and 49 patients (61.3%) survived. Conclusion: NTC is crucial health problem and in inclusion, infections were the dominant cause further the leading cause of fatality in our observation.

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