Applicability of the Broselow Pediatric Emergency Tape to Predict the Size of Endotracheal Tube and Laryngeal Mask Airway in Pediatric Patients Undergoing Surgery: A Retrospective Analysis

Background This study aims to elucidate the applicability of the Broselow pediatric emergency tape in predicting the size of the endotracheal tube (ET) and laryngeal mask airway (LMA) in children of central India. Methods A retrospective review was conducted in the Department of Pediatric Surgery during the period of four years (January 2018 to December 2021), and all children between 1 month and 12 years of age who were admitted for routine surgery and were operated on were included. The goal was to assess the accuracy of Broselow pediatric emergency tape in predicting the size of ET and LMA in children and assess the applicability of this tape in an Indian setting based on observation and comparison with the predicted ET tube and LMA size based on the tape. The correlation was done between the predicted ET tube and LMA size and used ET tube and LMA size (the difference and mean). The Chi-square test was applied to test the difference between those matching and those not matching with their respective color zones with respect to weight, tracheal tube (LMA/ET) tube, and for both weight and tracheal tube, and then the p-value was calculated. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be significant. Results A total of 296 patients were included in the study. There were 230 males and 66 females. A maximum number of patients were in the white zone (56 patients). A total of 112 patients (37.8%) matched the zone with their weight; 192 patients (64.8%) matched their LMA/ET tube with their respective zones; 81 patients (27.36%) matched both their weights and tracheal tube (LMA/ET) size with the predicted values as per their respective zones. Pearson’s Chi-square test was applied to assess the significance of the difference between the number of patients matching and not matching their weight, LMA/ET tube, and both weight and LMA/ET tube with their corresponding color zones as per the Broselow tape. For all the above parameters, the differences were found to be not significant for p-value <0.05. Conclusions Broselow tape (BT) is applicable in acute trauma settings where it can be used for estimating weight and ET/LMA sizes in an emergency situation where weight measurement is not feasible.