Epidemiological and clinical findings of whooping cough in children hospitalized in pediatric intensive care unit between 1990 and 1994

Between 1990 and 1994, 105 children were admitted for whooping cough to one of the 22 intensive care units belonging to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, French Language Group. On admission to ICU, 78 children were less than 3 months old, 9 of which were less than 30 days old, 24 children were aged between 3 and 6 months, 2 children between 6 and 12 months and only one child was older than 12 months. 98 % of these children suffered from paroxysmal cough, 50 % from bradycardia, 21 % from apnea and 9 % from life-threatening whooping cough as identified by Huault in 1983. Among the complications, 2 cases of pneumothorax, 17 cases of atelectasis, 11 cases of bronchopneumonia (gram negative organism in 8 cases), 2 cases of septicemia and 6 cases of seizures were worthy of note. The mean leucocyte and lymphocyte maximum values were statistically different in children suffering from life-threatening whooping cough as compared to children suffering from the other forms of whooping cough : 99 100/mm(3) in the first group compared to 28 000/mm(3) and 41 200/mm(3) in the first group compared to 19 410/mm(3) in the second group respectively. A significant difference was also recorded in these 2 groups with regard to the minimum blood sodium value which was 123 and 136 mmol/l respectively. 34 children required mechanical ventilation for a mean duration of 8,3 days (1-21 days). 7 children (6,6 %) died, all of them belonging to the life-threatening group.