Characteristics and Outcomes of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Infection among Children Admitted in Al-Imam Abdulrahman Al Faisal Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, some reports demonstrated that children are at lower risk of infection. Though, with the growing transmission of the virus, it has been illustrated that it can infect children. Nevertheless, the features and outcomes of COVID-19 infection in children are still unclear. Objective: This study aims to describe the clinical characters and outcomes of children infected with COVID-19 and admitted to a hospital in Saudi Arabia. Design and Setting: This is a retrospective study that was carried out in Imam Abdulrahman Al Faisal Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by collecting data from patients’ records of children who were admitted to the hospital from March to July 2020. The collected data included information on the age and gender of the children, as well as their clinical course during hospitalization. Results: Thirty-three patients were included;39.4% of the children aged less than one year, 51.5% were males. Asthma occurred in 15.2% of patients. Asthma (p-value = 0.035), and chronic lung disease (p-value = 0.046) were the most significantly occurring comorbidities. Also, 72.7% of the children were admitted to the ward, while only 3% required a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and children care unit (PICU). The most prevalent manifestation was fever in 45.5%. Fever (p-value = 0.024), cough and headache among children more than six years (p-value < 0.001), and gastrointestinal symptoms (p-value = 0.038) were the most significant symptoms. Temperature > 38 (p-value = 0.043), oxygen saturation < 94% (p-value = 0.021), low systolic blood pressure and high heart rate (p-value < 0.001) were the most common vital signs abnormalities. Of the whole patients, 3% showed abnormal radiographic investigation. The mean length of hospital stay was 8.9 ± 4.2 days, no in-hospital COVID-19 related mortality was reported. Conclusion: The prognosis of children with COVID-19 who are hospitalized was relatively good, with no in-hospital COVID-19 related mortality identified. A larger study is needed to confirm the outcomes of the present study.