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Objective: To describe the frequency and types of tracheal intubation complications and their main causes., Methods: Cross sectional study of patients who were submitted to tracheal intubation for more than 24 hours at the Pediatric ICU of Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo, between May 1998 and December 1999. Exclusion criteria were previous intubations, surgeries or traumas in the cervical region or oropharynx., Results: A study of 147 patients with ages varying from 1 month to 15 years and 3 months was carried out. An inadequate tracheal tube had been used in 31.3% of patients submitted to tracheal intubation and 14.3% needed 5 or more attempts to achieve intubation. Resident physicians had more difficulty with intubation. Most tracheal intubation attempts were related to increased traumas, hypoxia, bradycardia and worsening of the Downes score after extubation. Accidental extubation was observed in 21.8%, related to worsening in the score of Downes and need for reintubation. The resident physicians also caused a higher number of traumas and bradycardia., Conclusion: Most complications may be attributed to lack of experience and training of the physician performing the tracheal intubation. We should implement training programs and increase supervision during tracheal intubation to minimize these outcomes.

Unlabelled: The radial artery catheterization with the purpose of children's monitoring has been more and more used in Pediatric Intensive Care Units, and many times, is use is indispensable, like in cardiac surgery post-operative cases. However, there are only a few articles on the subject among us., Purpose: To analyse the complications of radial artery catheterization in the post-operative of cardiac surgery in children., Methods: We studied the complications of this procedure in 120 children in cardiac surgery post-operative range from 1 month to 2 years. The children were catheterized by percutaneous technique (n = 67) and by cutdown technique (n = 53). The following complications were analysed in relation to the placement time of the catheter and the used technique: local infection, hemorrhagic complication, ischemia, catheter occlusion and accidental catheter displacement., Results: Infection, ischemia and hemorrhage were more frequent and statistically significant in patients submitted to cutdown technique, while the catheter occlusion and accidental displacement were similar in both groups. The placement time of the catheter was an important variable in our study. All of the other infection cases occurred after 72 hours of the catheterization and the frequency of hemorrhage and ischemia was higher in the first 72 hours., Conclusion: The main complications of this proceeding are related to the technic utilized, time of utilization of the catheter and to the characteristics of the patients.