Profile of adolescents with severe anemia admitted in a tertiary care hospital in northern India.

Anemia is common during adolescence. However, severe anemia is uncommon and can have varied etiology. This study was conducted to find out the profile of adolescents (10-18 years) admitted for severe anemia. The Case records of children between 10 and 18 years old admitted during the year 2008 in Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital for severe anemia as admitting diagnosis were reviewed. There were 40 patients admitted with severe anemia during the year 2008. This constituted 3.37% of all the admissions. Mean age of these patients was 12 (+/-2.5) years and mean hemoglobin at admission was 3.6 (+/-1.4) g%. Megaloblastic anemia was most common type of anemia (42.5%) followed by aplastic anemia (27.5%) and 15% cases were due to severe iron deficiency anemia. Although iron deficiency anemia is the most common type of anemia, but in adolescents megaloblastic anemia and aplastic anemia should be looked for whenever the adolescents present with severe anemia.