OBJECTIVE: Attack of rheumatic fever (RF) are often severely unwell, in great pain, severe carditis and requirement of hospitalization. Little is known about
association between disease characteristic and length of stay especially in children. This research aims to determine the association of disease characteristics and length of hospital stay in children with RF in Sanglah Hospital.
METHOD: Using medical record inpatient, we identified all patients with acute rheumatic fever from January 2016 until May 2019. Mann whitney was used to asses for statistical significance and a p-value less than 0.05% was considered significant.
RESULT: A total of 41 patients were admitted with primary diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever is registered in Sanglah Hospital from January 2016 until May 2019; the mean of age was 11.41 (SD 3.33) years old and 63.4% were male. Median length of stay was 6.0 (0-36) days. Severe carditis, recurret RF attack, and comorbidity has a significant mean difference of length of stay [(24.6 vs 15.9;p=0.021); (28.8 vs. 15.9, p=0.001), (37.0 vs. 16.5, p=0.001) days] respectively.
CONCLUSION: Severe carditis, recurrent attacks of RF, comorbid were an important factor associated with longer hospital stay.