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Aspiration in pediatric anesthesia: is there a higher incidence compared with adults?

Randall P Flick1, Gregory J Schears, Mark A Warner

  • 1Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. flick.randall@mayo.edu

Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology
|October 5, 2006
PubMed

Insights

Pulmonary aspiration of gastric contents is slightly more common in children than adults, though less so than previously thought. Morbidity from aspiration is rare across all age groups, particularly in pediatric patients.

Area of Science:

  • Medical research
  • Pediatric medicine
  • Gastroenterology

Background:

  • Pulmonary aspiration of gastric contents is a recognized clinical concern.
  • Previous research suggested higher aspiration rates in children compared to adults.
  • Recent data indicate a potential decline in aspiration incidence and severity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review and compare the incidence and severity of pulmonary aspiration in adults and children.
  • To analyze current epidemiological data on gastric content aspiration across age groups.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of recent studies on pulmonary aspiration.
  • Epidemiological analysis of aspiration data in adult and pediatric populations.

Main Results:

  • Recent studies provide an updated epidemiological perspective on aspiration.
  • Aspiration incidence appears slightly higher in children than adults, but the difference is smaller than previously reported.

Conclusions:

  • Pulmonary aspiration is marginally more frequent in children, contrary to earlier findings.
  • Morbidity associated with aspiration is infrequent in both adults and children.
  • Pediatric patients exhibit a particularly low rate of aspiration-related morbidity.
Abstract

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