• Anette Mortensen, Katja Lenz, Hanne Abildstrøm, and Torsten L B Lauritsen.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Juliane Marie Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. mortensenanette@hotmail.com
• Paediatr Anaesth. 2011 Jun 1;21(6):623-9.

AbstractThe prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing. The focus of this review is the special anesthetic considerations regarding the perioperative management of obese children. With obesity the risk of comorbidity such as asthma, obstructive sleep apnea, hypertension, and diabetes increases. The obese child has an increased risk of perioperative complications especially related to airway management and ventilation. There is a significantly increased risk of difficult mask ventilation and perioperative desaturation. Furthermore, obesity has an impact on the pharmacokinetics of most anesthetic drugs. This has important implications on how to estimate the optimal drug dose. This article offers a review of the literature on definition, prevalence and the pathophysiology of childhood obesity and provides suggestions on preanesthetic evaluation, airway management and dosage of the anesthetic drugs in these patients. The authors highlight the need of supplemental studies on various areas of the subject.© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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