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Introduction: Acute respiratory infections constitute a serious health problem as they are the main cause of infant morbidity and mortality in the world, mainly during the first year of life. Objective: To clinically and epidemiologically characterize complicated community pneumonias in children admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the "Pepe Portilla" Pediatric Hospital. Methods: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, descriptive study was carried out on 80 patients with pneumonia complicated by pleural effusion, admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the "Pepe Portilla" Pediatric Hospital. Results: children from 0 to 4 years of age were more affected (77,5 %), with a slight predominance of the male sex (60 %). Fever and polypnea were present in 15 % of the patients' symptoms. Streptococcus pneumoniae (8,7 %) was the predominant germ in pleural fluid. The combination of antibiotics and fibrinolytics (91,3 %) was the predominant therapeutic combination. Sepsis was the most common complication (22,5 %). The length of stay with most patients was < 10 days (81,3 %). Conclusions: the most affected age group was 0-4 years of age, the predominant sex was male, the predominant symptoms were fever and polypnea, Streptococcus pneumoniae was the microorganism responsible for the appearance of this disease, the use of antibiotics plus fibrinolytics was necessary, sepsis predominated as the most severe complication and the hospital stay in said unit was less than 10 days.