Airway Management Practice Patterns in Paediatric Anaesthesia: A Survey

Overview

Respiratory adverse events continue to be the leading reason for perioperative critical events in children. It is crucial for the anaesthesiologist to anticipate, recognize and treat these respiratory adverse events. Respiratory adverse events are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality during paediatric anaesthesia. To avoid trouble, one must be prepared for trouble: if a difficult airway is very likely, anaesthesia should be administered by experienced anaesthesiologists and should only be performed in a protected well-equipped area where the personnel adequately trained. This survey focuses on assessment and management of paediatric airway and highlights the unique challenges encountered in children.

Airway management is one of the key areas of paediatric anaesthesia practice. The paediatric patients have significant anatomical and physiological differences compared with adults, which impact on the techniques and tools that the anaesthesiologist might choose to provide safe and effective control of the airway. Furthermore, there are a number of pathological processes, typically seen in the paediatric population, which present unique anatomical or functional difficulties in airway management. The presence of one of these syndromes or conditions can predict a "difficult airway". Respiratory adverse events continue to be the leading reason for perioperative critical events in children. New developments in airway management in paediatric patients can only improve perioperative outcome if anaesthesiologists who are fully acquainted with these fundamental aspects of paediatric anaesthesia care for these children. This survey was taken out within members of the Community of European Anaesthesiologists, to describe and explore current patterns of their airway management in paediatric anaesthesia. The purpose of the study was to see whether there are more uniform practice patterns among anaesthesiologist with paediatric experience than those without paediatric experience. Secondarily, the survey also explored anaesthetists'' knowledge about the risks of respiratory adverse events and, and about national organizations' recommendations. Therefore, this survey highlighted some of the important anatomical and physiological differences and their implication in daily anaesthesiological practice.