Pancytopenia in Hospitalized Children

BACKGROUND: Pancytopenia in hospitalized children is not a common occurrence. The causes may vary in different patients and in diverse areas of the world. There are no reports in the literature describing these etiologies in a developed country. Our review focused on children presenting with pancytopenia at a children's hospital in the United States with the purpose to allow us to better evaluate and care for children. PROCEDURE: Charts of children aged 2 months to 18 years who were admitted to our hospital over a 5-year period were retrospectively reviewed to identify the diagnosis of pancytopenia. The diagnosis of pancytopenia was confirmed by laboratory values showing neutropenia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia. These etiologies and patient characteristics were reported in our review. RESULTS: A total of 64 children were identified with the diagnosis of pancytopenia. The most common diagnoses were infectious in origin (64%), followed by hematologic (28%), and miscellaneous (8%) etiologies. CONCLUSIONS: The most common etiology of pancytopenia in hospitalized children without cancer was infections. This differs from earlier reports in other countries, where megaloblastic anemia was found most often. Our review should provide guidance to the diagnoses which should be considered when evaluating a child with pancytopenia.