Pediatric anesthesia & critical care
Diagnostic value of the percentage of glottic opening score for classifying videolaryngoscopy in children: a prospective validation study
Authors' conclusion
The POGO score has poor diagnostic performance for classifying difficult videolaryngoscopic tracheal intubation and low inter-rater reliability in children.
Study context
- Population
- Children undergoing tracheal intubation with videolaryngoscopy as first-line approach904 tracheal intubations
- Participants
- 809 children
- Comparison
- Percentage of glottic opening (POGO) score vs visual analogue scale (VAS) rating
- Primary endpoint
- Diagnostic performance (AUROC) for classifying difficult videolaryngoscopic tracheal intubation
Methodological detailsdiagnostic accuracy, post-hoc POGO scoring of videolaryngoscopy recordings, Study period of 16 months
- Diagnostic accuracy
- Post-hoc POGO scoring of videolaryngoscopy recordings
- Study period of 16 months
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
Difficult videolaryngoscopic tracheal intubation (AUROC)
| Group | AUROC |
|---|---|
| POGO score | 0.52 (95%CI 0.42-0.62) |
| VAS rating | 0.79 (95%CI 0.73-0.86) |
AUROC
POGO score0.52 (95%CI 0.42-0.62)
VAS rating0.79 (95%CI 0.73-0.86)
- POGO score vs VAS rating: P < 0.001 — POGO poorer diagnostic performance
- Difficult videolaryngoscopic tracheal intubation incidence
- 47 (5.2%)
Further findings
| Outcome | POGO score | VAS rating | P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple laryngoscopy attempts (AUROC) | P < 0.001 | ||
| AUROC | 0.46 (95%CI 0.40-0.51) | 0.66 (95%CI 0.61-0.71) | |
| Multiple tracheal intubation attempts (AUROC) | P < 0.001 | ||
| AUROC | 0.45 (95%CI 0.41-0.50) | 0.64 (95%CI 0.60-0.68) | |
| Time to tracheal intubation > 90 s (AUROC) | P < 0.001 | ||
| AUROC | 0.45 (95%CI 0.40-0.51) | 0.70 (95%CI 0.65-0.75) | |
| Airway-related adverse events (AUROC) | P = 0.030 | ||
| AUROC | 0.51 (95%CI 0.41-0.61) | 0.65 (95%CI 0.57-0.74) | |
| Severe hypoxaemia (AUROC) | P = 0.047 | ||
| AUROC | 0.47 (95%CI 0.35-0.59) | 0.63 (95%CI 0.52-0.73) |
- POGO score < 50% for difficult videolaryngoscopic intubation
- 0.11 (95%CI 0.04-0.22) · PPV · sensitivity 0.13 (95%CI 0.05-0.27)
POGO score inter-rater reliability
- Intraclass correlation coefficient
- 0.61 (95%CI 0.47-0.72)
- Limited inter-rater reliability
Original publication
Diagnostic value of the percentage of glottic opening score for classifying videolaryngoscopy in children: a prospective validation study. Anaesthesia. Published 18 May 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →