General Anesthesia Risk Across Pediatric Surgical Specialties: Low in Otolaryngology

Purpose: To determine the relevance of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning regarding general anesthesia (GA) in children under 3 years of age for procedures lasting longer than 3 h, by surgical specialty and for otolaryngology specifically.

Methods: A one-year retrospective review was conducted at a tertiary-care medical center for all children younger than 3 years undergoing surgical procedures with durations greater than 3 h. De-identified data related to age, surgical service, procedure types, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification, and general anesthesia time were collected and examined.

Results: During 2017, 430 of 11,757 patients (3.7%) met the age and duration of anesthesia criteria. Procedures performed by the cardiothoracic surgery service were mostly likely to result in duration of surgery greater than 3 h (46.6%), followed by neurosurgery (12.9%), cardiology (9.3%), plastic surgery (7.1%), general surgery (6.6%), and urology (5.1%). Less than 2% of patients undergoing ophthalmology (1.9%), orthopedic surgery (1.7%), and otolaryngology (0.5%) procedures required anesthesia greater than 3 h.

Conclusion: Less than 4% of patients younger than 3 years undergoing surgery required general anesthesia for longer than 3 h. The theoretical risks of general anesthesia per the FDA warning are discussed and must be balanced against the known functional and neurodevelopmental consequences of not performing critical and time-sensitive surgery on children in this age group. A strategy for addressing parental and provider concerns is discussed.