A STUDY OF AIRWAY COMPLICATIONS AMONG THE PATIENTS OF CLEFT LIP & CLEFT PALATE DURING INTRA OPERATIVE & POST OPERATIVE PERIOD AT GOVERNMENT GENERAL HOSPITAL, GUNTUR

Abstract

As Anesthesia for the children undergoing cleft lip and palate repairs surgeries are associated with a variety of airway related problems, we have to study in detail about this kind of morbidity in the study group. OBJECTIVES: 1.To identify the demographic profiles of the study group. 2. To know the various airway complications developed among the study subject during intra and post-operative periods. STUDY DESIGN: It is an observational study. STUDY AREA: Department of Anesthesiology, Govt. General Hospital, Guntur. STUDY SUBJECT: Patients (Children) of cleft lip and cleft palate admitted in Govt. General Hospital for surgery. SAMPLE SIZE: 100 cleft lip and cleft palate patients. STUDY PERIOD: March 2012 to August 2013 Results: Among total study sample the mean age of the study group was 24.42 months, range 3-180 months with a median age of 19.8 months was observed and among all the study group 49% had primary cleft lip (CL), 47% had cleft Palate (CP) and about 4% had combined cleft lip and palate (CLP). In this study the mean age and mean weight with reference to cleft lip 15.08 months and 8.2 kg, cleft palate 34.06 months and 13.2 kg, both cleft lip and palate 31.75 months and 13.5 kgs respectively was observed. Related to air way complications about 4.7% of the patients developed desaturation followed by 4% ET tube Disconnection, 2.2% difficult intubation, 1.5% ET Tube compression, 1.8% airway edema, 0.5% laryngospasm and 0.5% Brochaspasm was observed in this study. It is observed that maximum 25% of air way complications were observed among the patients of both cleft lip and cleft palate followed by 15% in only, cleft palate and 10% only in cleft lip. Regarding air way complications in association with age about 15.7% were observed among preschool children followed by 13.6% observed in infants (<1 Year). CONCLUSION: Cleft lip and palate deformities had relatively more airway complications the common complications are desaturation, endotracheal disconnection and difficult intubation. This can be reduced by anesthesia expertise, meticulous monitoring and postoperative care.