Common post-operative complications in children

The exact incidence of common post-operative complications in children is not known. Most common one is post-operative nausea and vomiting followed by respiratory complications leading to hypoxia. Cardiac complications are less in children without associated congenital cardiac anomaly. Post-operative shivering, agitation and delirium are seen more often in children anaesthetised with newer inhalational agents like sevoflurane and desflurane. Urinary retention in the post-operative period could be influenced by anaesthetic drugs and regional blocks. The purpose of this article is to review the literature and present to the postgraduate students comprehensive information about the current understanding and practice pattern on various common complications in the post-operative period. Extensive literature was searched with key words of various complications from Pubmed, Google scholar and specific journal, namely paediatric anaesthesia. The relevant articles, review article meta-analysis and editorials were the primary source of information for this article.