title: Anesthetic complications in pediatric patients undergoing cochlear implantation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cochlear implantation (CI) is effective in the treatment of childhood sensorineural hearing loss and is associated with minimal surgical complications. We investigated the incidence of anesthetic complications in young patients undergoing general anesthesia for CI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective chart review.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective chart review of 123 patients younger than 18 years, who underwent CI between 2007 and 2008, was conducted for identification of intra- and postoperative anesthesia-related complications. The relation of collected variable to the complication events was analyzed using logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 123 CI procedures, eight patients had nine anesthesia-related complications, yielding a complication rate of 6.5% and included the following: postoperative wheezing/stridor (5 cases), laryngospasm (3 cases), and emesis during inhalational induction (1 case). Divided by age group, 12 patients were <12 months with one complication (8%), 18 patients were between 1 and 2 years with one complication (5.6%), 35 patients were between 2 and 5 years with one complication (3%), 39 patients were between 5 and 12 years with five complications (13%), and 19 patients were older than 12 years with no complication (0%). Logistic regression failed to identify a significant association of any collected variable(s) with the observed complications. The incidence of complications is similar to that previously reported in elderly patients (4.3%) (Pearson χ(2) , P = .523).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  General anesthesia is well tolerated by pediatric patients undergoing CI, even under 1 year of age. Significant perioperative complications are primarily respiratory, are usually free of long-term sequelae, and occur with an incidence similar to other reported age groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, New York University, School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: Kimberly L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Mooney
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gingrich
authors.forename: Jung T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Anil K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lalwani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D033282:Parental Consent; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors