Pediatric intensive care unit admissions network (PIA)—report of the first results of the nationwide collaborative pediatric intensive care research network in Germany

Purpose The pediatric intensive care unit admissions (PIA) network was initiated to interconnect pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) and establish a research infrastructure for pediatric intensive care in Germany. The primary aim is to collect data on pediatric critical illness to answer clinical and epidemiological research questions. Secondary goals are the implementation of quality indicators to allow benchmarking for German PICUs. Methods PIA is a hospital-based, pediatric intensive care registry. Patients admitted to a PICU with a corrected gestational age of ≥ 28 days and > 41 + 0 weeks are eligible for a basic survey; a more detailed survey is conducted for patients under 18 years with a PICU stay of more than 48 h or for patients who died within 48 h. Results We report on the first results from 8196 patients admitted from 05/2023–12/2024 from 23 PICUs. 65.03% of admissions were non-elective. 2895 (35.32%) children were eligible for the detailed survey. Emergency re-admissions within 24 h of discharge were 0.90%. Children < 5 years of age accounted for 49.44% of all admissions. The leading symptoms for PICU admissions were mainly of respiratory nature (38.41%), with 55.20% of children receiving respiratory support within the first hour of admission. During PICU stay, 68.70% received respiratory support, 38.89% cardiovascular support and 49.53% of children required sedation. The mortality rate was 1.85%. Conclusion The findings presented here and future findings from the PIA network will allow data comparison, disease surveillance and benchmarking and help advance intensive care research and clinical care of critically ill children.