The Evaluation of Transported Children to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: Indications, Problems, and Outcomes

Objective: Critically ill children often require transport to tertiary centers where higher levels of care can be provided. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the reasons for transport, complications that occurred during transport, and the clinical outcomes of the patients transferred to our tertiary pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary pediatric hospital with 250 beds and 20 tertiary PICU beds.

Results: During the study period, 108 patients were transferred to our PICU. The mean age was 75.0 ± 70.5 months (range, 1-211 months), and 59 were female. Most patients (82.4%) were transported by land; 17.6% were transported by air ambulance. Fourteen patients were referred for liver transplantation, and 7 patients were referred because of a need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support and heart transplantation or left ventricular assist device placement. Two patients were transported by air while on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Complications occurred in 25% of patients.

Conclusion: Vital signs were assesed, and certain critical interventions such as intravenous fluids and respiratory support were provided more frequently during air transport, possibly due to the fact that physicians were always present during air transport. Quality improvement of transport teams and multicenter and nationwide studies on PICU transport are needed.