You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
PostScript
Letter
COVID-19-associated croup severity in Australian children
  1. Timothy C Lai1,
  2. Patrick J B Walker1,2,
  3. Silja Schrader3,
  4. Alissa McMinn3,
  5. Shidan Tosif1,2,3,
  6. Nigel W Crawford1,2,3,
  7. Daryl R Cheng1,2,3
  1. 1 Department of General Medicine, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2 Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  3. 3 SAEFVIC, Infection and Immunity, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Daryl R Cheng, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia; daryl.cheng{at}rch.org.au

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2023-325717

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been linked to upper airway manifestations, including laryngotracheobronchitis, or croup.1–3 Croup from any cause is a common reason for hospital presentation in children and can cause serious morbidity.3

    The current literature examining COVID-19-associated croup mostly describes the differences in clinical course and outcomes between SARS-CoV-2 variants; there is little data comparing SARS-CoV-2 croup to other respiratory viruses.1–5 Thus, we conducted an Australian single-institution observational study comparing the clinical features and outcomes between COVID-19-associated and non-COVID-19-associated croup.

    All cases of croup (ICD10 J05.0) in children aged 0–9 years presenting to The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, a quaternary paediatric hospital in Victoria, Australia, between the first case of COVID-19 in Australia (25 January 2020) and 30 June 2022 were included. Clinical, demographic and laboratory data were retrospectively extracted from the organisation electronic medical record (Epic Systems, Verona, Wisconsin, USA). Medical charts of all SARS-CoV-2-positive patients and all patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) were also manually reviewed to ensure accuracy and completeness. SARS-CoV-2 status was determined via PCR or documented rapid antigen …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Twitter @drdcheng

    • Contributors TCL collected data, carried out initial analyses and interpretation, drafted the initial manuscript, and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript. PJBW and SS carried out data analyses and interpretation, and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript. AM collected data and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript. ST and NC critically reviewed and revised the manuscript. DRC conceptualised and designed the study and data collection instruments, carried out data analyses and interpretation, and critically reviewed and revised the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.