Abstract

A retrospective review was conducted of all children admitted to our intensive care unit over eight years with a diagnosis of pertussis that had been proved on culture. Altogether 789 children were seen as outpatients and inpatients. Twenty four of these children were admitted to the intensive care unit, 13 of whom required ventilatory support; two of the ventilated patients died. Intubation and ventilation were usually started for appreciable apnoea. Most patients requiring support were less than 3 months of age and required intervention within the first 16 days of cough. For these patients ventilation was neither difficult nor prolonged. Coughing spasms were not a problem and intubation and ventilation appeared to attenuate the progress of the disease. The presence of severe bacterial pneumonia associated with difficult ventilation requiring neuromuscular paralysis indicated a poor prognosis. It is suggested that intubation and ventilation can be safely used in very severe pertussis infection and, because of their greater risk of hypoxic damage and death, it should not be reserved as a last resort in critically ill infants.