ABSTRACT

Wars cause irreversible consequences. Lack of access to clean water and food, disruption of health care and preventive health services, forced migration and parental death indirectly and adversely affect children. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of the refugee migration occurred due to internal conflicts in Syria on our pediatric emergency department.

Demographic and clinical characteristics of 233 Syrian patients who were admitted to our pediatric emergency department in 2014 were retrospectively analyzed by reviewing the hospital records.

One hundred-two (44%) patients were female and 131 (56%) were male and the median age of the patients was 1.66 years (1 day-17.9 years). The majority of admission complaints composed of respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms and 65% of cases received a diagnosis of infectious disease. The number of admissions has increased steadily during the year, it was found to be more frequent in the evening hours. Fifty (21,5%) patient were brought to the emergency department by ambulance. Treatment of 88 (38%) patients was completed in the emergency observation room or inpatient services. Communication problems were present in a significant number of cases according to the records.

The frequency of the diagnosis of infectious diseases, poisoning and foreign body ingestion diagnosis may be associated with housing and nutrition problems and deficiencies in preventive health services. As it seems, the conflict will not stop soon; more refugees in the future might want to take the advantages of the Turkish health services, therefore, further studies on this subjects might be required.

Keywords: Children, refugee, Syria civil war, pediatric emergency, infection