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The incidence, type and severity of anesthesia‐related critical incidents during the perioperative phase has been investigated less in children than in adults.

The aim of the study was to identify and analyze anesthesia‐related critical incidents in children to identify areas to improve current clinical practice, and to propose a specialized anesthesia‐related critical incidence registration for children.

All reported pediatric anesthesia‐related critical incidents reported on a voluntary reporting based on a 20‐item complication list of the Dutch Society of Anesthesiology between January 2007 and August 2013 were analyzed. An anesthesia‐related critical incident was defined as ‘any incident that affected, or could have affected, the safety of the patient while under the care of an anesthetist’. As the 20‐item complications list was too crude for detailed analyses, all critical incidents were reclassified …