Difficult pediatric airway based on the case of a child with orofacial cleft – to emerge the patient or to continue?
Autori:
Iva Smiljanić, Marija Bilić, Ana Brundula, Ivo Jurišić, Perislav Lauš, Morena Milić
Sažetak
Summary
Pediatric population is specific for many reasons. Although at a first glance it may seem that children are merely a small version of adults, they differ greatly in anatomy and physiology. When we speak of pediatric anesthesia, we must have in mind all anatomical, physiological, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic differences, because these can influence all aspects of anesthesia – from induction, securing and maintaining the airway, to emerging from anesthesia and extubation. When physiological and anatomical specifics unite with conditions and syndromes which can additionally aggravate securing of the airway or ventilation, we suddenly face the problem which has to be taken very seriously and react momentarily. Countless researches have already proved that hypoventilation with concomitant hypoxia and hypercarbia can extremely quickly result in a fatal respiratory insufficiency which can be followed by a cardiac arrest. Together with a literature review, we present a case of a 4-month old baby boy who was admitted for an elective reconstruction of a cleft lip in general anesthesia. After induction, there were difficulties in the visualization of laryngeal structures by direct laryngoscopy. With videolaryngoscopy a good visualization was achieved, but unfortunately intubation was not possible due to inability to pass the endotracheal tube through the vocal cords. The surgery was postponed for a month. In the second
attempt the child was successfully intubated and surgery performed with no complications. Due to anatomical and physiological differences characteristic for the age of specific pediatric patients, different types and sizes of the clefts, an individual approach is essential. It is very important to recognize situations in which one should not insist on surgical or anesthetic intervention, but should instead back off and wait shortly for anatomic relations to change due to somatic growth, in favor of the child.