Anaesthesia for children: towards safer practice

Abstract

It has long been recognised that anaesthesia-related complications, including anaesthesia-related cardiac arrest and mortality, occur more frequently in children, than in adults.¹ While outcomes have improved over the last couple of decades, most likely as a result of better training and improved monitoring, and notably the introduction of pulse oximetry and capnography in the 1990s, paediatric anaesthesia-related cardiac arrests still occur. The incidence is 1.4-22:10 000 anaesthetics, and a subsequent mortality of approximately 30%. The incidence varies by centre,^2-5 but is thought to be higher in South Africa as the studies in the literature derive either from the developed world, or from tertiary referral centres in the developing world.