| Summary: | Objectives: Pneumonia is an acute lower respiratory tract infection involving the lung parenchyma but can lead to severe complications and hospitalization. The study aimed to evaluate medical/surgical interventions and variations between regions in children hospitalized with complicated pneumonia in Portuguese public hospitals from 2000 to 2015. Design/Methods: Data was collected from a Portuguese administrative database that contains all hospitalizations in mainland public hospitals. These cases were referred to hospitalizations due to pneumonia in children (0 to 17 years of age) from 2000 to 2015. Severity, complications, and use of diagnostic and treatment procedures were analyzed by region. Results: A total of 74 419 hospitalizations were registered, with 8 678 of this hospitalization being for complicated pneumonia. A higher number of hospitalizations for pneumonia occurred in 2006 (5900) and for complicated pneumonia in 2009 (695). The median length of stay was of 7.31 days. Of the total patients with complications, 22,47% had complex chronic conditions. Total direct hospitalization costs during the selected period were estimated to be 1 847.60€ per patient. Discussion: This study provides insightful epidemiological data to evaluate medical and surgical interventions over the years and assess variations in the hospitalizations of children with complicated pneumonia between regions.
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