Performance of published scoring tools for predicting the risk of perioperative respiratory adverse events in children - An evaluation in a large paediatric cohort

Perioperative respiratory adverse events (PRAE) are a main cause of morbidity and mortality in paediatric anaesthesia. Clinicians need to be able to predict their patients' risk of PRAE to plan their care. Clinical risk prediction tools have been developed to assist with pre-operative risk stratification; however, validation outside the contexts of their development is limited. In this study, we test the ability of common risk prediction tools to identify patients at high risk of PRAE in general anaesthesia.

Citation:
Evans D, Sommerfiel D, Hauser N, Sommerfield A, Khan RN, von Ungern-Sternberg BS. Performance of published scoring tools for predicting the risk of perioperative respiratory adverse events in children - An evaluation in a large paediatric cohort. Anaesth Crit Care Pain Med. 2026.

Keywords:
Streptococcus pyogenes; Point-of-care tests; SurveillancePerioperative respiratory adverse events; anaesthesia; children; outcome; paediatric; prediction; risk; risk prediction tool

Abstract:
Perioperative respiratory adverse events (PRAE) are a main cause of morbidity and mortality in paediatric anaesthesia. Clinicians need to be able to predict their patients' risk of PRAE to plan their care. Clinical risk prediction tools have been developed to assist with pre-operative risk stratification; however, validation outside the contexts of their development is limited. In this study, we test the ability of common risk prediction tools to identify patients at high risk of PRAE in general anaesthesia.