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were reviewed. Fluid intake, urine output, insensible water loss (IWL), and electrolyte balance of 22-GW (n=14), 23-GW (n=40), and 24-GW (n=67) infants nursed in high humidity (95%) were compared with ≥26-GW (n=65) infants nursed in 60% humidity. Results: Survival rate until discharge was 33%, 82%, 75%, and 89.3% in 22-GW, 23-GW, 24-GW, and ≥26-GW infants, respectively. Fluid intake and IWL was higher in 22-GW and 23-WG, but not different in 24-GW, than in ≥26-GW infants. At postnatal days (P) 3-5, the urine output was significantly lower in ≥26-GW infants than in the other age groups. Serum sodium level was significantly higher in 22-, 23-, and 24-GW (P1-2) than in ≥26-GW infants. Hypernatremia (>150 mEq/dl sodium) was more frequent in 22-GW (71%), 23-GW (41%), and 24-GW (21%) than in ≥26-GW infants (14%). Conclusion: High-humidity environments significantly decreased fluid intake and improved electrolyte imbalance in 24-GW, but not 22-and 23-GW, infants. Increased IWL in the latter might be related to more immature skin, and implicates the need for additional nurturing conditions.

Background:We applied the pediatric risk of mortality (PRISM) III score to study patients in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), where children with various kinds of diseases were hospitalized. We analyzed whether this scoring system was useful to predict patient mortality in the PICU.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients hospitalized in a 5-bed PICU at a tertiary general hospital. Children who were transferred to other hospitals and remained under pediatric intensive care were excluded from this study.Results: We studied a total of 105 children, which included 63 boys (60%) and 42 girls (40%). The mean age was 4.2 years (range 0−17 years). The children were admitted to the PICU for various conditions, including respiratory disease (31 children), neurological disease (30 children), congenital anomaly or neonatal disease (11 children), hemato-oncological disease (10 children), accident or poisoning (7 children), cardiovascular disease (5 children), sepsis (2 children), and the other miscellaneous diseases (9 children). The mean period of PICU stay was 9 days (range 2−66 days). Out of the 105 patients, 94 survived and 11 died. Thus, the mortality rate was calculated as 10.5%. PRISM III scores of the patients were between 0 and 38, with a mean ± SD of 5.0 ± 6.7. In comparison with previous studies on PICU patients with similar PRISM scores, the patients included in our study exhibited a higher mortality. The area under the curve for the prediction of mortality by PRISM III was 0.107. Among the variables included in PRISM III, Glasgow coma scale, pupillary light reflex, and platelet counts were associated with patient mortality.Conclusions: In a PICU with a wide spectrum of diseases, PRISM III was not a useful predictor of patient mortality.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of abdominal sonography in the diagnosis of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 51 neonates who were diagnosed with NEC in the neonatal intensive care unit at Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital of the Catholic University in Korea between January 2008 and December 2012. The neonates under went abdominal ultrasonography on the day of their diagnosis and on the third day after diagnosis. Simple abdominal radiography was performed on the same day as the sonography. The neonates were diagnosed with NEC in accordance with the ab dominal sonographic findings. Abdominal radiography and sonography were used to assess the NEC stages in the neonates Results: On the day of NEC diagnosis by abdominal sonography, 50 neonates were