Abstract:
Background: Serious adverse events are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality of pediatric
patients undergoing procedures in perioperative period . Perioperative serious adverse events related
to anesthesia involve multiple factors. Patient characteristics and comorbidities play a role in many of
these events, highlighting the importance of preoperative screening. There is a limited resource on
perioperative serious adverse events in pediatric patients undergoing surgery in Jimma University
specialized hospital.
Objective: To assess the incidence and associated factors of perioperative serious adverse events in
pediatric patients undergoing surgery in Jimma University Specialized Hospital.
Methods: Hospital-based cross-sectional study was done, data was collected from August to
November 2021 by anesthesiology residents and anesthetists after taking orientation on the
questionnaire by the principal investigator and they were supervised daily throughout data collection
time. Data was edited, coded and entered, and cleaned by Epidata manager version 4.6.0.6. First
descriptive analysis was made, and bivariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression model was
used by SPSS (version 25) to identify risk factors associated with perioperative Serious adverse
events. Variables with p-value<0.25; candidates for MLR and P-Value <0.05 was considered
statistically significant.
Result: A total of 135 study subjects were included. The overall incidence of perioperative serious
adverse events was 3.7%. Pediatric patients who had emergency surgery (AOR:1.42,95%
CI:1.33,4.61), ASA classification III (AOR: 3.14,95% CI:1.3,5.32) and IV (AOR:3.31,95%
CI:1.3,6.71) and airway event (AOR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.46, 12.57) were more likely to have
perioperative serious adverse events than their counter parts.
Conclusion: Perioperative serious adverse events were common under pediatrics age during
anesthesia. Independently positively associated factors were having emergency surgery, higher ASA
classification and air way event. Most of the cases were recognized and managed early. On the basis
of the findings, it is advisable that preoperative screening should be done, patients undergoing
emergency surgery should be stabilized before the surgery and close monitoring and follow-up should
be given for patients with higher ASA classification and also, avoid repetitive air way manipulation
