Emergency pediatric anesthesia - accessibility of information
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Updated: Apr 21, 2026
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Published on: January 17, 2011
Hannah King1, Georgina E M Pipe, Sarah L Linford
1Department of Anaesthesia, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, UK.
Insights
Anesthetic trainees found their own knowledge fastest but inaccurate for pediatric emergencies. PaedsED app and the PAEDs handbook offered fast, accurate, and reliable information, proving crucial for critical situations.
Area of Science:
- Anesthesiology
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Medical Informatics
Background:
- Pediatric emergencies present unique challenges due to variations in patient physiology and anatomy.
- Medication and fluid calculation errors in pediatric emergencies can have severe consequences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the reliability and speed of information resources used by anesthetic trainees during pediatric emergencies.
- To compare the effectiveness of smartphone applications, formularies, and local handbooks against trainee knowledge.
Main Methods:
- Anesthetic trainees identified critical information from pediatric emergency scenarios.
- Information retrieval times and accuracy were measured using smartphone apps (PaedsED, Anapaed), the British National Formulary for Children (BNF), and a local handbook (PAEDs).
Main Results:
- Trainee's own knowledge was the fastest but least accurate information source.
- PaedsED app was fast and accurate, while Anapaed was accurate but slower.
- The PAEDs handbook was fast, accurate, and highly rated for its checklist format.
Conclusions:
- Trainee knowledge alone is insufficient for accurate pediatric emergency management.
- PaedsED and PAEDs are recommended as rapidly accessible and reliable resources for anesthetic trainees.
- Effective information resources are vital for improving patient safety in pediatric emergencies.
Background:
Emergency pediatric situations are stressful for all involved. Variation in weight, physiology, and anatomy can be substantial and errors in calculating drugs and fluids can be catastrophic.
Objectives:
To evaluate the reliability of information resources that anesthetic trainees might use when faced with common pediatric emergencies.
Methods:
Anesthetic trainees from a single UK deanery were recruited and timed while they identified 18 predetermined pieces of information from three Advanced Pediatric Life Support (APLS) scenarios. The two most popular smartphone applications identified from a previous survey, PaedsED (PaedsED. iED limited, Version 1.0.8, Updated March 2011. ©2009) and Anapaed (AnaPaed. Thierry Girard, Version 1.4.2, Updated Nov 2, 2012. ©Thierry Girard), the British National Formulary for Children (cBNF) and trainee's inherent knowledge were compared with a local, check-list style, handbook of pediatric emergency algorithms - Pediatric Anesthetic Emergency Data sheets (PAEDs).
Results:
Twenty anesthetic trainees were recruited. The fastest source of information was the trainees own knowledge (median 61 s, IQR 51-83 s). Second fastest was PAEDs (80, [59-110] s), followed by PaedsED (84, [65-111]). The most accurate source overall was PaedsED (100, [83-100]) although the accuracy varied between scenarios. The handbook was rated as the most popular resource by the trainees.
Conclusion:
Although fastest, trainees own knowledge is inaccurate, highlighting the need for additional, rapidly accessible, information. Of the two smartphone applications, PaedsED proved to be fast, accurate, and more popular, while Anapaed was accurate but slow to use. The PAEDs handbook, with its checklist-style format, was also fast, accurate and rated the most popular information source.
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