Paediatric admissions and outcome in a general intensive care unit.

Background: It is believed that intensive care greatly improves the prognosis for critically ill children and that critically ill children admitted to a dedicated Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) do better than those admitted to a general intensive care unit (ICU).

Methods: A retrospective study of all paediatric (< 16 years) admissions to our general ICU from January 1994 to December 2007.

Results: Out of a total of 1364 admissions, 302 (22.