An evaluation of the Danish version of the Pediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium scale

Emergence Delirium (ED) is a common complication from anesthesia. Although ED has a short duration, detection is important due to the risk that ED poses for post-operative complications in the child. The Pediatric Anesthesia Emergence Delirium (PAED) scale has been translated into Danish, but it has not yet been validated. The aim of this study was to investigate the inter-rater reliability, criterion validity, and responsiveness of the Danish version of the PAED scale as well as to determine the prevalence of ED.

A sample of 100 post-operative children were enrolled and assessed with the PAED scale at pre-specified time intervals. Inter-rater reliability was assessed independently by 2 raters. For criterion validity, a clinical expert was chosen as the gold standard. Sensitivity and specificity were based on a comparison between the scoring of the raters and the gold standard. Responsiveness was assessed by comparing changes in scores. Prevalence was based on the PAED scale's cut-off level of ≥10 points.

A high level of agreement was found, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.85-0.94. Few outliers appeared in the Bland-Altman plot. Sensitivity ranged from 70% to 86%, and the specificity of both raters against the gold standard was 100%. Changes in scores were indicative of responsiveness. Prevalence was 13.2%.

The Danish version of the PAED scale was found reliable and demonstrated high levels of sensitivity and specificity. In addition, it was possible to identify changes in scores over time. Prevalence was in line with existing literature.