Hypoxic accident during pediatric anesthesia due to an inappropriate setting of respirator

A 3-year-old child was anesthetized for ENT examination and surgery. After induction and tracheal intubation, the patient was ventilated (controlled mode). The respirator screen showed information compatible with a failure of intubation: no expired CO2, no expired flow, no alarm of high pressure limit, and no respiratory chest movement. A fall of SpO(2) appeared rapidly which recovered after extubation and manual ventilation through a face mask and reintubation. The expiratory CO2 was present when the patient was ventilated manually and disappeared under controlled ventilation. The increase in the value of the maximal insufflation pressure allowed efficient ventilation with an expiratory CO2 curve and showed high ventilation pressure compatible with a bronchospasme. This case report shows that in case of bronchospasme, if the value of the maximal insufflation pressure is low, this may lead to an erroneous diagnosis of failure of intubation. (C) 2013 Societe francaise d'anesthesie et de reanimation (Sfar). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.