Key Concepts
Overview
Kawasaki disease ties high-yield nursing judgment to airway, perfusion, infection control, and safe medication administration. Kawasaki disease is an acute, self-limited medium-vessel vasculitis of childhood that preferentially targets coronary arteries. Inflammation weakens the vessel wall and predisposes to coronary artery aneurysms— the dominant morbidity nurses must keep in mind when a febrile child has mucocutal findings and irritability. The illness classically evolves in stages: acute febrile illness with conjunctival injection, oral changes, rash, extremity changes, and cervical lymphadenopathy; subacute phase with thrombocytosis and peeling; convalescent phase. Nurses anchor on fever duration (classically ≥5 days) plus characteristic findings and the need for timely IVIG to reduce coronary risk. Because incomplete Kawasaki exists (fewer classic criteria), maintain a low threshold to escalate when persistent fever overlaps with any combination of rash, mucositis, extremity erythema/edema, or unexplained irritability in a young child. Cross-link US RN lessons hub · Canada RN lessons hub and related LESSON cards where the stem crosses systems. Pathophysiology in plain language. Think in layers: cells → organs → whole-person compensation. When a stem describes acute change (fever, pain, new...