PMID: 8999376Jul 1, 1996Paper

Difficult intubation in paediatric cardiac surgery. Significance of age. Association with Down's syndrome

Minerva anestesiologica
S BevilacquaF Santoli

Abstract

To assess the relationship between the age of pediatric patients and the likelihood of difficult intubations and to confirm the importance of Down Syndrome causing difficult intubations. Retrospective study. Pediatric cardiac surgery operating room. 627 pediatric patients, suffering from congenital heart disease, operated in our hospital from 1992 to 1994, divided in three age groups (under 1 month, between 1 month and 1 year, over 1 year of age). Translaryngeal intubation performed in the operating room before the operation. The percentage of difficult intubations was assessed in the three age groups and the association with Down syndrome was also considered. The likelihood of orotracheal intubations in each of the preceding groups was also examined. The percentage of difficult intubation in our experience was estimated to be 4.62%. Intubation's difficulty increases with decreasing age of non Down patients. The risk of difficult intubation in Down patients is, irrespectively of age, nearly 27% higher than in non-Downs (5.77% versus 4.52). However Down Syndrome seems to be important only in the age group between one month and one year. The percentage of orotracheal intubations in the preceding groups, even if indirectly, seem t...Continue Reading

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Birth Defects

Birth defects encompass structural and functional alterations that occur during embryonic or fetal development and are present since birth. The cause may be genetic, environmental or unknown and can result in physical and/or mental impairment. Here is the latest research on birth defects.