Paediatric Anaesthesia News

Severe critical events in paediatric anaesthesia in the United Kingdom. The APRICOT Effect.

A large observational study in European hospital of over 31,000 children showed a relatively high (5.2%) incidence of “severe critical events” (1) . This paper sought to isolate the UK component of over 7,000 children treated in 43 UK hospitals. By contrast, the incidence was significantly lower in the UK versus non-UK hospitals (3.3% vs. 5.8%;  RR 0.57, P < 0.001). 

This could partly be attributed to more experienced dedicated paediatric anaesthesia providers managing higher risk patients in the UK. 

1. Habre W, Disma N, Virag K, et al. Incidence of severe critical events in paediatric anaesthesia (APRICOT): a prospective multicentre observational study in 261 hospitals in Europe. Lancet Respiratory Medicine 2017; 5: 412–25.

Download the the full paper APRICOT UK Paper in Anaesthesia

Guidelines for the Provision of Paediatric Anaesthesia Service (GPAS) (2018)

The Royal College of Anaesthetists have just published the “Guidelines for the Provision of Paediatric Anaesthesia Service (GPAS) (2018) principally authored by anaesthetists in Birmingham, University College London, Cardiff and Calderdale.

The full version can be downloaded from INSERT

Prof Mark Davenport ChM FRCS (Paeds) FRCS (Eng)

(ex) President of BAPS.