Sakthivel Shanmugam1 , Senthil Kumar Kandasamy2
BACKGROUND Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common bacterial illness of paediatric age group. UTIs, especially in young children, have non-specific signs and symptoms that can be undetected or misdiagnosed. Delaying diagnosis and treatment of UTIs may result in long-term renal complications. We wanted to study the clinical profile and risk factors of urinary tract infections in childhood. METHODS This hospital based prospective study was conducted in paediatrics department of Karuna Medical College from June 2018 to December 2019. Children admitted in the department with culture positive urinary tract infection were included in the study. RESULTS In the present study, out of 80 cases with UTI, 54 were female children, and 26 were male children with a male to female ratio of 1:2.07. The most common presenting symptom was fever followed by crying during micturition. Most common risk factor in the present study was the presence of phimosis in 23 (28.75%) patients. Escherichia coli is the most common pathogen isolated (66.25%), followed by Klebsiella and Proteus. CONCLUSIONS UTI should be considered as a potential cause of fever in children. As the febrile children with UTI usually present with nonspecific signs and symptoms, urine culture should be considered as a gold standard for the diagnosis of UTI in children. Female sex, phimosis, constipation, and worm infestation were important risk factors for urinary tract infection in children.
