BackgroundIn least developing countries, there are few data on children’s critical care. This makes the provision of aid and improvement of outcome difficult.ObjectivesTo describe admission and outcome patterns of children managed in a general intensive care unit at Jimma University Specialized Hospital (JUSH), Ethiopia, over a 5-year period.MethodsA retrospective cross-sectional study design was used. All children from birth to 14 years of age who were admitted to the general ICU of the hospital from 2009–2013 were included. Patient charts and ICU documentation log were reviewed.ResultsA total of 170 children were admitted to the ICU of JUSH over the study period. The greater share was taken by males (54.7%), with a male-to-female ratio of 1.2:1. The overall mortality rate was 40%. The majority of the children were in the age range of 10–14 years (38.8%). Of the total number of patients admitted, 34.7% were trauma cases, 45.8% of whom died. The highest percentage, 69.5%, of trauma patients were admitted for head injuries. Among the trauma cases, burn and polytrauma were the second and third leading causes (15.3%) of admission. Postoperative patients and medical patients accounted for the rest of the admitted cases (28.2% and 27.6% of the cases respectively).ConclusionThe leading cause of admission and death was trauma. Postoperative and medical causes of admission were also significant. The mortality rate in the ICU was very high, and this could be due to various factors. Further research benchmarking and interventions are highly recommended.

Background: Most of the time propofol and ketamine have been used as an induction agent in adult surgical patients but propofol may cause cardiorespiratory depression while ketamine increases heart rate and arterial blood pressure. On the other hand, the clinical effects of propofol and ketamine seem to be complementary. Ketofol is most commonly used for procedural sedation hence exploring its effectiveness for induction will be paramount for the clinical care of surgical patients. Objective: This study aims to compare the hemodynamic changes between ketofol and propofol within 30 min after induction of general anesthesia for elective surgical patients. Methodology: A Double-blind Randomized Controlled Trial was done on 62 patients aged between 18 and 65 years and the American Society of Anesthesiologist class I & II those have been allocated randomly into ketofol and propofol groups. A change in systolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, and heart rate within 30mins was followed for both groups. After the normal distribution of data was tested analytic statistics were calculated for variables in the study using Mixed ANOVA, Independent samples T-test, and Mann Whitney U test as appropriate, and for categorical data Chi-square test or fisher's exact test was used for analysis. P-value < 0.05 is considered statistically significant with a power of 90%. Results: Both the mean systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure were significantly decreased in the propofol group immediately after induction, at 5th minute, 10th minute, and 15th minute compared to the baseline value with a statistically significant value of (p < 0.05). There was a significant increase in mean heart rate in the ketofol group immediately after induction and on the 5th minute after induction compared to the baseline value (p = 0.001 and p = 0.022 respectively). Conclusion and recommendations: We conclude the administration of ketofol (0.75 mg/kg of ketamine and 1.5 mg/kg of propofol) for induction of general anesthesia has better hemodynamic stability than propofol during the first 30 min after induction. We recommend to researchers to do further randomize controlled trials, with invasive blood pressure measurement and multicenter study. Highlights