PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE-UNIT ACQUIRED WEAKNESS (PICUAW).

Critical illness polyneuropathy (CIP) and critical illness myopathy (CIM) are major complications that occur in severely ill patients especially in intensive care unit. The aim of this work was to highlight on critical illness polyneuropathy and myopathy in pediatric intensive care unit and its relation to difficult weaning from mechanical ventilation. Patients and Method: The study included 50 children. The patients were selected as simple random sample. All children were subjected to full history taking, laboratory tests, EMG and NVC. Results: ICUAW incidence in our studied sample was high 62% and had significant relation to the duration of ventilation and some risk factors like age, multiple causes, and some laboratory parameters. Conclusions: It becomes clear from the research that the incidence of PICUAW was high especially when pathological factors associated with the disease. We recommended neurophysiologic testing for early diagnosis of weakness, control of causal factors such as the level of blood sugar, and minimizing the length of the period of mechanical ventilation.