[Urinary tract infections: review of the case records of the 5-year-old population of Novara].
AIM: A feverish high temperature is the symptom that most frequently leads families to take their children to a Pediatric First Aid unit. In the differential diagnosis of the causes of hyperpyrexia the presence of infections of the genito-urinary tract have to be excluded. Infections of the urinary ways are often the cause of high temperatures in infancy, particularly during the 1st year of life; early identification at the moment of examination at the Paediatric First Aid clinic of patients with infections of the urinary ways makes it possible to prevent the onset of renal complications. We carried out a retrospective study with the purpose of evaluating the incidence of infections of the urinary ways and their complications in paediatric patients who had come to the First Aid unit for hyperpirexia and were later hospitalised after examination of the urine revealed and infection of the urinary ways. METHODS: The study was carried out by consulting the registers listing arrivals at the First Aid unit and the subsequent discharge diagnosis. We then consulted the clinical records of patients who required admission to our Paediatrics Clinic arter the first aid examination. RESULTS: Re-reading the registers of examination carried out and the clinica records of hospitalised patients there emerged an increase in the observation of this pathology, diagnosed at the moment of the First Aid examination by means of rapid tests and thereafter assessed by haematochemical and radiological tests. CONCLUSIONS: In our opinion this increase could be attributed to the greater attention paid to diagnosing the causes of fever of apparently unknown origin.