Korean J Pediatr Infect Dis.  2008 May;15(1):58-66. 10.14776/kjpid.2008.15.1.58.

Trends of hospitalized tuberculosis at a children's hospital during a 20-year period (1988–2007)

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. hoanlee@snu.ac.kr
  • 2Department of Pediatrics, Gachon University Gil Hospital, Incheon, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
According to the 2008 WHO report, incidence, prevalence, and mortality of tuberculosis are decreasing globally. The 7th National Tuberculosis Survey of 1995 in Korea showed that the prevalence of tuberculosis was also decreasing. This study was performed to review the hospitalized childhood tuberculosis in a children's hospital over a 20 year period.
METHODS
Medical records of children < 16 years of age hospitalized with the diagnosis of tuberculosis at the Seoul National University Children's Hospital between 1988 and 2007 were reviewed retrospectively. Changes in number of patients and involved sites were also analyzed by four 5-year periods.
RESULTS
Out of the 186 hospitalized patients, 59.1% were male. Median age at diagnosis was 5.5 years old (range, 10 days-15 years). The main involved sites included the lung (n=54, 29%) or pleura (n=12, 6.5%), central nervous system (n=49, 26.3%), lymph node (n=15, 8.1%), bone and joint (n=9, 4.8%), gastrointestinal tract (n=5, 2.7%) or peritoneum (n=5, 2.7%), pericardium (n=2, 1.1%) and others (n=3, 1.6%). Total 32 patients (17.2%) showed miliary pattern. The proportion of hospitalization with newly diagnosed tuberculosis among all cause hospitalization decreased from 0.61% to 0.09%, comparing the period of 1988-1992 and 2003-2007 (P < 0.001) and the incidence of hospitalized tuberculosis of any involved organs also decreased with a statistical significance.
CONCLUSION
The data from a single children's hospital suggest that the number of hospitalized childhood patients with tuberculosis has decreased over a 20 year period in Korea.

Keyword

Tuberculosis; Childhood; Epidemiology; Korea

MeSH Terms

Central Nervous System
Child
Diagnosis
Epidemiology
Gastrointestinal Tract
Hospitalization
Humans
Incidence
Joints
Korea
Lung
Lymph Nodes
Male
Medical Records
Mortality
Pericardium
Peritoneum
Pleura
Prevalence
Retrospective Studies
Seoul
Tuberculosis*
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