Evaluation of the management of pediatric patients with pain in lower limbs. Cárdenas. 2014-2017

Abstract

Introduction: musculoskeletal pain is very common in children and adolescents, being a common cause of medical consultation and referral to rheumatologists, pediatricians and orthopedic surgeons. It has been estimated that 10 to 20 % of school-aged children have it. Girls present pain less frequently than boys and the peak with the highest incidence is 13-14 years. It is a frequent cause of consultation in the territory with difficulty for diagnosis and treatment.
Objective: to evaluate the management of patients with pain in lower limbs at pediatric ages.
Materials and methods: a research-action, prospective study was carried out in the Teaching General Hospital ¨Julio M. Aristegui Villamil¨ of Cardenas in the period from November 2014 to November 2017. The studied variables were: age groups, sex, remission origin, pain location, traumatic causes, septic causes, orthopedic causes, applied treatment and evolution.
Results: the five first causes were described in each case. Male sex showed the highest incidence. The onset of lower limb pain was more frequently at the ages from 6 to 11 years. Traumatic causes contributed the highest number of cases on painful pathologies, following the septic in order of frequency and finally the orthopedic ones. The proposed working algorithm contributed to the improvement in patient´s recovery showing an evolving satisfaction of 98.96%.
Conclusions: the proposed working algorithm contributed to improve the patients´ recovery.