Study of seasonal variations in the incidence of postoperative laryngospasm

Muralidhar Aavula, Radha Ramana Murthy

Pdf Page Numbers :- 57-63

Muralidhar Aavula¹ and Radha Ramana Murthy^1,*

¹Niloufer Hospital, Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

*Corresponding author: Dr. Radha Ramana Murthy, Professor, Niloufer Hospital, Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mobile: +91 9246201971; Email: aavulaklmn@yahoo.co.in  

Received 8 January 2015; Revised 11 March 2015; Accepted 18 March 2015; Published 25 March 2015

Citation: Muralidhar A, Radha Ramana M. Study of seasonal variations in the incidence of postoperative laryngospasm. J Med Sci Res. 2015; 3(2):57-63. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17727/JMSR.2015/3-011  

Copyright: © 2015 Muralidhar A, et al. Published by KIMS Foundation and Research Center. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 

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Abstract

 Laryngospasm causes about 40% of post-extubation airway obstruction. The incidence of laryngospasm in paediatric population ranges from 0.04 to 14%. Despite advances in monitoring and in the standard of care in the practice of anaesthesia, it remains as one of the main causes of respiratory complications, especially in children. In this study we have evaluated the seasonal variations in the incidence of laryngospasm.

Aims and objectives: To study the variation in incidence of laryngospasm with seasonal changes.

Methods: A prospective study is conducted from “2009 to 2013” at Niloufer hospital, 1000 patients in the age group of 1 to 5 years, ASA grade 1, posted for elective surgeries lasting 30 to 60 minutes were selected, pre medicated with glycopyrollate, ondansetron, and fentanyl. Induction and intubation were with propofol & vecuronium, maintained with: N₂O:O₂ (3:3), sevo 1%.

Results: Laryngospasm was observed in 12.96 % (35 cases out of 270) during the period of November, December, January and February, 3.16% (12 cases out of 380) in July to October, 1.43% (5 cases out of 350) in March to June. Incidence of laryngospasm was significantly varied with seasonal changes (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Increased incidence of laryngospasm in winter season may be due to subclinical upper respiratory tract infections (Ice berg phenomenon), and anaesthesiologist should be aware & be ready to treat laryngospasm.

Keywords: Laryngospasm; seasonal variations; subclinical infections