Ex-Premature Infants

These children can present quite an anaesthetic challenge in even the most experienced of hands. Often they have difficult venous access, and, depending on their gestational age at birth and neonatal ventilatory requirements, may have broncho-pulmonary dysplasia and chronic lung disease. They may still require supplementary oxygen and be on home-oxygen.

All infants can still have episodes of periodic breathing up to about 60 post-conceptional weeks and ex-premature infants have a higher risk of post-operative apnoea if they return for surgery while still relatively immature. Thus they should all be monitored with an apnoea alarm as well as pulse-oximetry in the immediate post-operative period.