[Hospital treatment of child-tourists at the Pula Medical Center 1983-1988].

During the 6-year period, 687 children-tourists, aged up to 12 years, were treated at the departments of the Medical Center of Pula; on average 114.5 (standard deviation +/- 17.79) children per year. There were 449 (65.4%) patients from different parts of Yugoslavia and 238 (24.6%) from abroad. Two hundred and fifty-four (37.9%) patients were treated at the Department of Paediatrics 231 (33.7%) at the Department of Surgery, 168 (24.4%) at the Department of Infectious Diseases, then 30 (4.4%) at the Department of Ear, Nose and Throat, 3 female patients (0.4%) at the Department of Gynecology and only one boy was treated at the Department of Ophthalmology. There were 22 (3.2%) newborns, 48 (7%) infants, 143 (20.8%) were one to three years old, then 130 (18.9%) were 4 to six years old and 344 (50.1%) older than 7 years. During the 6-year period, children-tourists accounted for 5.1% of the hospitalized children. 81.3% of the patients were treated during June, July and August, the peak being in July (39%). The most frequent diseases were from the group "infectious and parasitic diseases" (188 patients = 27.4%) and among them "diarrheal syndrome" in 82% of patients, then the group "injuries and poisons" (140 patients 20.4%) among which there were 57 (40.4%) superficial injuries, contusions and open wounds, then in 33 (23.5%) patients different fractures; in this group 10% of children were poisoned mostly by drugs (sedatives and tranquilizers) used by their parents.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)