Complications of tracheal intubation in critically ill pediatric cancer patients

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The oncologists are treating cancer more aggressively, leading to increase in number of pediatric admissions to the ICU. Due to anatomical and physiological differences, pediatric patients are at high risk of complications during intubation. We evaluated the incidence of complications during intubations in pediatric patients in our ICU. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We performed retrospective analysis of complications occurring during intubation in 42 pediatric patients. All intubations were orotracheal. We recorded number of attempts at intubation, need for use of intubation adjuncts and complications during laryngoscopy and intubation. The incidence of difficult intubation, hypoxia, and severe cardiovascular collapse was also noted. RESULTS: Complications occurred during 13 (31%) intubations. Hypoxia and severe cardiovascular collapse occurred in during 7 (16.7%) intubations each, while 4 patients (9.5%) (n=4) had cardiac arrest during intubation. Thirty three (78.6%) intubations were successful in first attempt and difficult intubation was recorded in 4 patients. CONCLUSION: Critically ill pediatric cancer patients have a high rate of complications during intubation.