Introduction:

community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains a common disease in children and is one of the leading causes of death in this age group. The objective of our study was to estimate the incidence of hospital admission due to CAP and describe some of its characteristics.

Material and methods:

we conducted a descriptive and retrospective study with inclusion of patients admitted to the Hospital Universitario Infantil Miguel Servet of Zaragoza with a diagnosis of CAP over a 2-year period to describe its clinical, radiological, laboratory, demographic characteristics and associated complications.

Results:

we found records for 248 cases of pneumonia; the mean age was 37.6 ± 2.2 months and was significantly higher in cases of typical bacterial pneumonia (41.98 ± 37.46) or atypical pneumonia (73.43 ± 41.28) compared to viral pneumonia (23.30 ± 19.07) (p <0.0001 and p = 0.0004, respectively). The most common type of pneumonia was of probable pneumococcal aetiology (47.6%; 95 CI: 41.84 to 54.18), and the most frequently identified causative agent was respiratory syncytial virus (34.65%; IC 95: 26.93 to 43.26). The odds ratio of presenting an alveolar radiographic pattern in bacterial pneumonia was 2.98 (95 CI: 1.50 to 5.91; p = 0.0013). The most frequently used antibiotic was intravenous ampicillin (62.87%), with longer duration of treatment in cases of bacterial pneumonia.

Conclusion:

CAP requiring hospital admission was most frequent in children aged less than 4 years, with an incidence and associated complications similar to those described in the previous literature. The aetiological diagnosis and subsequent selection of the optimal antibiotic therapy remain challenging.

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