Lung protective ventilation of paediatric patients during general anaesthesia

Particular challenges of anaesthetising newborns, infants and young children is reflected in the higher perioperative mortality of paediatric patients compared to adults.The anaesthesia-related mortality of children is currently estimated higher than of adults. The incidence of intraoperative cardiac arrests is 1:10,000, and respiratory causes are responsible for about a third of these paediatric mortalities. The pitfalls and risks for small children and especially newborns were recently confirmed in the APRICOT study, which analysed a total of 31,000 anaesthetic procedures in around 30,000 children treated in 261 centres across 33 European countries.