Unplanned admissions to a pediatric cardiac critical care unit: a review of 2 years' experience.

Objectives: Unplanned admissions to the pediatric cardiac ICU may be a large and high-risk group. Our study describes the frequency of unplanned pediatric cardiac ICU admissions, their admission data, and outcomes.

Design: All admissions to a pediatric cardiac ICU over 2 years were reviewed and those that were unplanned were identified for a detailed chart abstraction.