NECTARINE: NEonate-Children sTudy of Anaesthesia pRactice IN Europe Epidemiology of Morbidity and Mortality in Neonatal Anaesthesia: A European Prospective Multicentre Observational Study

The recent pharmacological and technological advancements are making paediatric anaesthesia safer, minimizing thereby the risk of serious adverse events. Despite recent advancements, there is still a significant incidence of life-threatening complications following general and regional anaesthesia without complete identification of predictive factors. Several cohort studies reported the incidence of perioperative anaesthetic complications, but the results were generally limited to a single centre.

Hence, a prospective multicentre study "APRICOT" has been recently conducted in order to establish the incidence of some severe critical events and to identify the risk factors for their occurrence [ClinicalTrials.gov identifier # NCT01878760]. This European Society of Anaesthesiology Clinical Trial Network project is currently in progress with over 300 participating centres and more than 25,000 patients, from birth to 15 years of age, to be included. The NECTARINE is specifically focussed on the neonatal population.

The NECTARINE aims to include all neonates and infants from birth to 60 weeks of postmenstrual age scheduled for an elective or urgent diagnostic or surgical procedure under sedation or general anaesthesia with or without regional analgesia or under regional anaesthesia. The primary aim of this study is to identify the occurrence of peri-anaesthesia (during and up to the first 120 minutes) interventions needed to treat or improve one of the following: (1) airway management, (2) oxygenation, (3) alveolar ventilation, (4) glycaemia and Na+, (5) cardiovascular instability, (6) body temperature, (7) brain oxygenation, and (8) anaemia. The parameter or the clinical event that has triggered the intervention will be specifically reported. As secondary aims the in- and out- of hospital morbidity and mortality will be studied at 30 and 90 days from anaesthesia.

Following sample size estimation, the plan is to recruit between 5000 children over a period of twelve consecutive weeks, including weekends and after-hours across the 30 European countries represented at the European Society of Anaesthesiology Council or part of geographical Europe.

The 12-week recruitment period will be chosen by each site commencing on 1 January 2016.The last possible inclusion date will be decided by the Study Steering Committee depending on the recruitment rate. Participating hospitals will be provided with data acquisition sheets that enable anonymous standardized recording of all patients' parameters, which will be used by the local institution to fill in the electronic case report form.