Hipoalbuminemia como factor predictor de mortalidad en pacientes críticos con diagnóstico de shock en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos Pediátricos del Hospital de Niños Roberto Gilbert Elizalde de la ciudad de Guayaquil de marzo a agosto de 2020.

Abstract

Background: According to INEC (National Institute of Statistics and Census) projections, the pediatric population in Ecuador for 2020 is 6,319,545 habitants, which represents 36% of the total population, with a mortality rate of 11.9% per 1000 live births. (1) The mortality rate in Latin American PICUs is approximately 13%, hence the importance of scales with a prognostic value of mortality risk. In order to measure the severity of the disease, death risk scales have been developed. These can be used to evaluate the quality of medical care and to optimize the use of resources, allowing improvements to the cost-benefit relation. (3) Objective: To assess whether hypoalbuminemia has value as a predictor of mortality in critically ill patients diagnosed with shock in the pediatric intensive care unit of the Roberto Gilbert Elizalde children's hospital in the city of Guayaquil. Materials and Methods: An observational, retrospective, cross-sectional, analytical study was carried out, in which all patients with a diagnosis of shock were included in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Roberto Gilbert Elizalde Children's Hospital in the city of Guayaquil from March to August 2020. Results: A total of 104 patients were found who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. There were 71 patients who presented hypoalbuminemia (68.3%), 12 deceased patients, which corresponds to 11.5%. The result of the Odds Ratio was 1.066, with a p-value of 0.92, in both cases they do not show an existing relationship between hypoalbuminemia and mortality. Conclusions: 68.3% of the patients registered hypoalbuminemia upon admission to the PICU, a higher value reported in other studies. Of the 12 deceased patients, 75% had hypoalbuminemia. The OR of hypoalbuminemia for mortality was 1.066, which shows there is no association between them. However, it is a constant characteristic among patients admitted to the PICU.