Bronchiolitis: Impact of Age and Etiology on Morbidity and Mortality in Previously Healthy Critically Ill Children

Abstract

This retrospective, multicenter observational study analyzed data from 257 children under 2 years old admitted with viral bronchiolitis to pediatric intensive care units (PICU) at Wolfson Children’s Hospital and UFHealth Shands Children’s Hospital from January 2020 to March 2022. The study explores viral etiologies and their associations with hospital length of stay (H-LOS), PICU length of stay (P-LOS), and severity markers and scores. Younger age was associated with longer H-LOS and P-LOS (P < .001). Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was associated with younger age but not with H-LOS when controlled for age. RSV’s impact on H-LOS varied by age (P = .018). Markers of severity did not differ between patients infected with RSV versus those without RSV, or in patients with co-infection versus single infection. In our population, pSOFA performed better than PELOD-2 in disease severity assessment.