CRICKET: Critical Events in Anaesthetised Kids Undergoing Tracheal Intubation

CRICKET: Critical Events in Anaesthetised Kids Undergoing Tracheal Intubation

The investigators' overall objective is to assess the incidence of critical events related to tracheal intubation at all international study sites. Furthermore, the study will investigate the used intubation techniques and identify possible improvement measures to increase patient safety.

It is a prospective observational multi-centre study collecting health related patient data over a period of three months. This serves best the study's purpose to detect the incidence and nature of problems related to tracheal intubation and how such problems are handled with the aim to further improve patient safety. During the observational period the anaesthesia staff in charge will complete a screening questionnaire for critical events associated with tracheal intubation for every patient undergoing general anaesthesia with tracheal intubation. If no critical events arise there are no further requirements. If a critical event occurs, the anaesthesia provider will complete a more detailed questionnaire which includes more questions about what exactly happened.

Patient characteristics will be extracted from the anaesthesia records. The investigators will extract such data for all patients undergoing tracheal intubation and additional data for those with critical events. The research will not intervene with the clinical conduct of patient care.

The collected health related data will be transferred to an electronic research data base. In this data base data will be encoded. Every patient with a critical event will be followed up as described above.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All paediatric patients requiring tracheal intubation, performed by the anaesthesia team for procedures or interventions requiring general anaesthesia
• Patients from 0 - 16 years of age.
• Informed or general consent given, according to the relevant ethics committee statement.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Refusal to give consent or withdrawal of consent if such is required by the relevant ethics committee.
• Patients >16 years