To evaluate the risk factors for mortality and prognostic factors in pediatric hemato-oncology patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of pediatric hemato-oncology patients admitted at the PICU of the Asan Medical Center between September 2005 and July 2008. Patients admitted at the PICU for perioperative or terminal care were excluded.

Total 88 patients were analyzed. Overall ICU mortality rate was 34.1%. Mean age at PICU admission was 7.0±5.7 years and mean duration of PICU stay was 18.1±22.2 days. Hematologic diseases contributed to 77.3% of all the primary diagnoses, and the primary cause of admission was respiratory failure (39.8%). The factors related to increased mortality were C-reactive protein level ( P <0.01), ventilation or dialysis requirement ( P <0.01), and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation ( P <0.05). In all, 3 scoring systems were investigated [Number of Organ System Failures (OSF number), the Pediatric Risk of Mortality III (PRISM III) score, and the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score]; higher score correlated with worse outcome ( P <0.01). The Oncological Pediatric Risk of Mortality (O-PRISM) scores of the 21 patients who had received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation were higher among the non-survivors, but not statistically significant ( P =0.203).

The PRISM III and SOFA scores obtained within 24 hours of PICU admission were found to be useful as early mortality predictors. The highest OSF number during the PICU stay was closely related to poor outcome.