Critical incidents and mortality reporting in pediatric anesthesia: the Australian experience

Since 1960, the collection and analysis of mortality data for anesthesia in Australia has been of significant benefit to practising anesthetists. These figures include pediatric deaths which fortunately have been rare and often inevitable because of severe underlying disease and patient risk factors. The reporting of critical incidents and serious morbidity, on the other hand, has been far less impressive. Only one state in Australia, Victoria, currently has a committee that collects morbidity data and, as this reporting is voluntary, is likely to under-represent the true numbers of critical events. There is no specific pediatric morbidity database in Australia so much of this discussion will be regarding overall anesthesia critical event reporting which includes pediatrics as a subset.