Objectives: To study the epidemiology of drowning among children cases reported at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Oman. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of the patients who were presented at emergency department with the history of drowning over a period of 10 years from January 2008 to December 2017. Patients with age 1 to 18 years were included in the study. The data including demographics, timing and location of drowning, season, adult supervision, swimming ability, medical risk factors, duration of submersion, on spot resuscitation, emergency medicine department assessment, hospital management and outcome were collected from electronic hospital information system using a preformed proforma. Outcome was categorized into either full recovery, severe neurological injury or brain death based on the pediatric cerebral performance category (PCPC). A good outcome represents to a score of 1-3 points and PCPC of 4-6 points corresponds to poor outcome. We calculated correlation for all variables with the outcome by using chi square and fisher exact tests. P value of <0.05 is taken as significant value. Results: A total of 74 patients were included in the study. Of them, 54 (73%) were male, children of less than six years of age were 47 (63.5%). More than 50% of drownings happened in outside swimming pool, 21 (28.4%) of patients were unsupervised during incident and 39 (52.7%) required cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Out of all studied subjects, 3 (4%) were brain dead and 2 (2.7%) developed severe neurological injury. On univariate analysis, the following variables were statistically significant (p<0.05) predicting the poor outcome like lack of adult supervision, duration of submersion >10 minutes, asystole, Glasgow Coma Scale <8, temperature <35c, PH <7, anion gap >20, blood glucose >10 mmol/L, abnormal chest x-ary findings, rewarming, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, intubation, inotrope support and pediatric intensive care unit admission. Conclusion: This study suggests that children especially male below 6 years of age without swimming ability need strict supervision next to body of water. Furthermore; preventive measures might include raising community awareness about the risk factors of drowning, commencing public CPR lessons and strict pool safety regulation by related authorities.

Objectives: To study the epidemiology of drowning among children cases reported at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital in Oman. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of the patients who were presented at emergency department with the history of drowning over a period of 10 years from January 20...