Following Institutional Ethical Committee approval from Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João (number 295/21), data were retrospectively collected from reviewing the electronic clinical and anaesthetic records of 102 patients submitted to cleft surgical repair during a five-year period, between 2016 and 2021 in a single paediatric centre in Porto, Portugal. The inclusion criteria were: patients under 18 years of age, diagnosis of cleft lip or palate, submitted to cleft surgical repair and availability of electronic anaesthetic records.
Recorded data included a demographic and clinical profile (age, sex, American Society of Anesthesiologists [ASA] physical status score, type of cleft, associated syndromes and other comorbidities), the anaesthetic approach (anesthetic technique, airway management), perioperative complications (respiratory, cardiovascular) and postoperative evolution (length of hospital stay, intensive care unit admission).
For the purpose of obtaining descriptive statistics, patients were divided into four age groups (less than one year, one to three years, four to 10 years and 11 to 17 years).
Statistical analysis
Data were analysed using the SPSS statistics for Windows version 27.0.1 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Descriptive statistics with numerical data were expressed as median and interquartile range (IQR) while for qualitative variables, absolute (n) and relative frequencies (%) were calculated. Tests of significance (Mann-Whitney U, Chi-square and Fisher’s exact test) were used whenever appropriate. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Recorded data included a demographic and clinical profile (age, sex, American Society of Anesthesiologists [ASA] physical status score, type of cleft, associated syndromes and other comorbidities), the anaesthetic approach (anesthetic technique, airway management), perioperative complications (respiratory, cardiovascular) and postoperative evolution (length of hospital stay, intensive care unit admission).
For the purpose of obtaining descriptive statistics, patients were divided into four age groups (less than one year, one to three years, four to 10 years and 11 to 17 years).
Statistical analysis
Data were analysed using the SPSS statistics for Windows version 27.0.1 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Descriptive statistics with numerical data were expressed as median and interquartile range (IQR) while for qualitative variables, absolute (n) and relative frequencies (%) were calculated. Tests of significance (Mann-Whitney U, Chi-square and Fisher’s exact test) were used whenever appropriate. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
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