Incidence and risk factors of perioperative respiratory adverse events in paediatric population of 1 month to 12 years age group undergoing elective surgeries in a tertiary care hospital an observational study.

PRAEs are common and serious complications in paediatric anaesthesia, significantly increasing hospital stays, healthcare costs, and risks of morbidity and mortality. These events include bronchospasm, laryngospasm, apnea, airway obstruction, desaturation, prolonged oxygen requirements,pneumonitis pulmonary edema and prolonged mechanical ventilation requiring ICU admission.

The proposed research aims to study the incidence and risk factors of PRAEs in our paediatric population of infants to 12 years age group undergoing elective surgeries at our paediatric surgery operation theatres. Young children have high oxygen demands and low oxygen reserves, making them more susceptible to hypoxemia. As per the literature search, the risk factors include younger age, higher ASA physical status, and presence of conditions like chronic lung disease or neuromuscular disorders, airway surgeries, prolonged anesthesia, high FiO2, and intraoperative hemodynamic instability. Our study focuses on seeing the incidence and other associated risk factors amongst the surgeries done in this cohort of paediatric surgery patients in our Indian population.

Additionally, we will be calculating the risk prediction score using SPORC C, which is a recently developed & validated scoring system. This 11 predictors scoring system may help us in classifying children into high & low risk groups. Prediction of PRAEs in our study will be very helpful in anticipating perioperative complications and thereby help in preparing adequately to prevent and treat adverse events successfully, ensuring safe patient care.

Analyzing the findings may help us develop our preanaesthetic assessment of patients and highlight the gaps thereby improving targeted training program. It can help us incorporate the scoring system in our assessment protocol in future that may be beneficial in formulating a treatment plan for patients in high-risk group.

We hope that our results will help with preoperative optimization, careful airway management, and individualized ventilation strategies to mitigate PRAEs, improving outcomes and cost effectiveness associated with paediatric anaesthesia.