Clinical trial NCT02810288: Airway Management Practice Patterns in Paediatric Anaesthesia: A Survey
Official title: A Survey of Airway Management Practice Patterns in Paediatric Anaesthesia by Anaesthesiologists in Different European Hospitals
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Paediatric Airway Management
Keywords: Airway anatomy
difficult intubation
congenital syndromes
Lead sponsor: Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo di Pavia
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2016-06-22
Enrollment: 200
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Volunteers among the anaesthesiological community of 5 different European countries. All participant voluntarily response all items in the questionnaire database.

A representative anaesthesiologist for each of the target Countries will be asked to participate and to invite at least one other hospital. All anaesthesiologists within each selected hospital will be asked to participate in the survey.

Brief summary: 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.

Detailed description: 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.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Anaesthesiologists currently working in the operating rooms.

Exclusion Criteria:

* unwilling to join the study

Primary outcomes:
measure: Proportion of anaesthesiologist with paediatric experience using intravenous induction compared to those without paediatric experience.
timeFrame: A time of survey; generally less than 20 minutes
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Proportion of anaesthesiologist with paediatric experience measuring cuff pressure with pressure manometer compared to those without paediatric experience.
timeFrame: A time of survey; generally less than 20 minutes
measure: Proportion of participants correctly identifying predictability of difficult airway in children.
timeFrame: A time of survey; generally less than 20 minutes
measure: Proportion of participants correctly answering questions about the use of (modified) rapid sequence induction in the paediatric population.
timeFrame: A time of survey; generally less than 20 minutes
measure: Proportion of anaesthesiologist correctly identifying national organisations difficult airway recommendations.
timeFrame: A time of survey; generally less than 20 minutes
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Pavia
country: Italy
facility: IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo
Study officials:
affiliation: IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo
name: Antonio Braschi, MD Prof
role: STUDY_CHAIR
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