Objective: to know the epidemiological clinical profile of children admitted for acute respiratory failure (ARF) in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Teresina Emergency Hospital (TEH), from 2010 to 2015. Method: a quantitative approach, with a sample of 451 medical records obtained in the electronic system of hospitalization of the patients who were admitted to the Pediatric ICU of the Hospital. After approval by the Ethics Committee of Estácio Ceut Faculty, the study was started. Results: Of the 721 hospitalizations due to ARF in children, 451 (62.6%) required clinical interventions in the ICU. Of these, 59.4% were male, in the age range of one to six years (61.9%), with a diagnosis in the ICD 10 by J96.0. In 99.7% of the cases, hospitalized for a period of more than ten days (72.4%), originating in the interior of Piauí (63.4%), whose discharge occurred by administrative closure (75.6%), followed by deaths, which were 19,3%. Conclusion: Acute Respiratory Insufficiency is a serious problem of global, national and local public health, because it is a morbidity that requires advanced technology for health treatment, with relative mortality. It is reasonable for therapeutic measures to prevent respiratory diseases to be systematically stimulated and implemented by health services to prevent them. KEYWORDS: Infant Mortality; Respiratory Insufficiency; Epidemiology.