Evaluation of the anesthetic management of children and adolescents in a teaching hospital.

Background And Objectives: Anesthetic quality and patients' satisfaction has been increasingly praised. Our objective was to evaluate anesthetic management of children and adolescents in our Hospital, by interviewing parents and/or tutors.

Methods: 230 parents or tutors of children and adolescents submitted to anesthesia in the period April-December 2003 were interviewed during the postoperative visit through a four-item questionnaire: children and adolescents and their parents or tutors identification (item 1); explanations during preanesthetic evaluation (item 2) about anesthesia (item 3) and post-anesthetic recovery (PACU) (item 4). Person informing respondents was identified and the presence of post-anesthetic complications made known. Respondents have scored the Anesthesiology Department from 0 to 10.

Results: Survey was answered by mothers in 189 (82.2%) of cases. Most respondents (114, 75.6%) were aged 20 to 39 years, were married (148, 64.3%), and 140 (60.9%) had no job. Anesthesiologists have introduced themselves to 89%; for 37% and 77.4% they have explained the importance and duration the fasting period; 82% were informed about anemia; 90% were informed about allergy; 46.8% were informed about PACU importance; 42.2% were explained about length of stay; 72.9% were informed about the health status of their children. There have been no concerns for 49%, 58% and 58%, respectively about pre, intra and post-anesthetic period; 78.9% would like to have been with their children at PACU arrival. Pre, intra and post-anesthetic concerns were related to patients' age and gender - no concern whatsoever for most respondents - and to respondents' education - the better the education the lower the number and diversity of reported concerns. Scores to the Anesthesiology department were mostly between 7 and 10 (97.4%).

Conclusions: The Anesthesiology Department provides satisfactory services, in spite of communication failures, which are easy to solve and depend more on Department's willingness than on scientific knowledge.