Open AccessChildhood heart failure in Ibadan
Author(s) -
Ikeoluwa Lagunju,
Samuel Omokhodion
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
west african journal of medicine
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0189-160X
DOI - 10.4314/wajm.v22i1.27978
Subject(s) - medicine , heart failure , pediatrics , heart disease , respiratory failure , emergency medicine , intensive care medicine , surgery
One hundred consecutive admissions of children with a diagnosis of congestive cardiac failure to the paediatric department of the University College Hospital, Ibadan were evaluated during a 10-month period. They were aged 8 days to 12 years. They constituted 5.8% of the total paediatric admissions during the study period. The most frequent underlying causes of heart failure were acute lower respiratory tract infections (36%), intrinsic heart disease (31%) and severe anaemia (28%). Other less common causes of heart failure were renal disorders (3%) and septiceamia (2%). Heart failure remains a common problem encountered in emergency paediatric practice in Nigeria, with the majority of cases resulting from preventable causes.