• Hao Fan, Fan Tao, Hai-fang Wan, and Hong Luo.
• Department of Anesthsiology, Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Hospital of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310003, China.
• Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2012 May 8;92(17):1194-7.

ObjectiveTo evaluate risk factors associated with emergence agitation (EA) in pediatrics after general anesthesia.MethodsA prospective cohort study was conducted in 268 pediatric patients aged 2-9 years, who received general anesthesia for various operative procedures in our hospital between January 2008 and October 2011. The incidence of EA was assessed. Difficult parental-separation behavior, pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions, and adverse events were also recorded. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to determine the factors associated with EA. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.ResultsOne hundred and sixteen children (43.3%) had EA, with an average duration of 9.1 ± 6.6 minutes. EA associated with adverse events occurred in 35 agitated children (30.2%). From univariate analysis, factors associated with EA were difficult parental-separation behavior, preschool age (2 - 5 years), and general anesthesia with sevoflurane. However, difficult parental-separation behavior, and preschool age were the only factors significantly associated with EA in the multiple Logistic regression analysis with OR = 3.091 (95%CI: 1.688, 5.465, P < 0.01) and OR = 1.965 (95%CI: 1.112, 3.318, P = 0.024), respectively.ConclusionThe present study indicated that the incidence of EA was high in PACU. Preschool children and difficult parental-separation behavior were the predictive factors of emergence agitation.

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