Evaluation and Implementation of the "Paediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium Scale" (PAED) in the PACU in Children Under 14 Years of Age

Overview

The goal of this study is to determine the incidence and characteristics of Emergence Delirium (ED) in children aged 0 - 13 undergoing general anesthesia and being taken care of at the paediatric PACU of the Charité Campus Virchow-Clinic. Therefore the "Paediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium Scale" (PAED) is used. In order to measure the patient's pain level, age-appropriate pain scales (CHIPPS or FPS-R) are applied. Risk factors for the occurrence of ED are to be determined and therapeutic approaches in case of an occurring ED are to be evaluated. Finally the future implementation of ED-monitoring in the PACU is to be prepared.

Emergence Delirium is a widely known phenomenon during the recovery phase after general anesthesia in children. In spite of the existence of a vast number of studies dealing with this topic and even after the development of a validated measurement tool for ED (PAED-Scale, Sikich et al. 2004), data regarding incidence, risk factors and treatment of ED vary considerably. This study seeks to determine the actual incidence and characteristics of Emergence Delirium (ED) in children at the paediatric PACU of the Charité Campus Virchow-Clinic. Therefore the PAED-Scale is applied in a large population of children aged 0 - 13 years undergoing general anesthesia. In addition a clinical evaluation regarding the presence of ED is conducted by the PACU nurses on the basis of their clinical experience. In order to preserve the possibility of minimizing the influence of postoperative pain, which has been identified as a confounding variable in the measurement of ED, an age-appropriate pain score is measured simultaneously with each PAED-Score. The Children's and Infants Postoperative Pain Scale (CHIPPS) (Büttner, 1998) is used for children aged 0 - 4 years. The Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R) (Hicks et al. 2001) is used for older children. Besides the study aims to identify possible factors that are associated with a higher incidence of ED. Therefore perioperative data (anesthetic and analgetic agents, duration of anesthesia, premedication, volume therapy etc.) is obtained. In case of the occurrence of ED additional data (duration of ED, treatment of ED) is collected. All data is collected by using a questionnaire that is completed by the anesthesists and the PACU staff.