An experience with surgical admissions to a paediatric ICU (PICU) in Harare, Zimbabwe

The provision of appropriate care for the critically ill plays an important role in reducing mortality and morbidity after surgery. However, critical care is expensive even in the advanced countries and its availability is limited in developing countries especially those in Africa. It is also now accepted that children have better outcomes when cared for in a PICU as opposed to a general ICU. This further limits the prognosis for children in the developing world where there are more general ICUs as compared to PICUs. The PICU in Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare is the only one of its kind in Zimbabwe. It is a five-bedded unit which takes both medical and surgical patients from birth to 12 years of age. The PICU is situated some distance from the operating theatres (OT), which are on a different floor in the hospital. The brief journey from the OT to the PICU could have an impact on outcome so this study was done to see what impact the status of the patient on arrival in PICU had on outcome