Decrease in Oxygen Saturation with Pulse Oximetry Caused by Postintubation Croup in Pediatric Patients

Jang, Young Ho; Kim, Jin Mo

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Postintubation croup (PC) is the rapid development of upper-airway obstruction as evidenced by hoarseness, stridor and/or chest retraction. This complication can lead to arterial desaturation and hypoxic bradycardia and these results may be serious, especially in pediatric patients. This study was undertaken to find the relationship between the oxygen desaturation and the duration of anesthesia. At the same time we tried to determine the incidence and etiologic factors of this complication.
METHODS
For this study, 400 children who received general anesthesia were studied. We investigated the several contributing factors in PC, such as age, anesthesia duration, and trauma during intubation. And the arterial oxygen saturation was measured by pulse oximetry.
RESULTS
The incidence of PC in children was 2 percent. Fifty percent of the patients with PC were 1 4 years old. There was no significant difference between sexes. 62.6% of the children received general anesthesia over 1 hour. There was no significance detected between the degree of oxygen desaturation and the anesthesia duration.
CONCLUSIONS
We confirmed that the anesthesia duration (>1 hour) and age (1 4 years old) were important etiologic factors of PC. But the degree of oxygen desaturation was not correlated with the duration of anesthesia.