The safety of general anaesthesia in paediatric patients undergoing the application of Biobrane(®) for small scalds.

•A total of 4.2% children undergoing anaesthesia for application of a biosynthetic dressing had an adverse event; the most common was temporary laryngospasm.•All events were temporary and either self-limiting or received minimal intervention.•There was an increased risk of an adverse event occurring in children less than 12months of age, with a consultant surgeon present and in an out-of-hours procedure.•This compares well with two large studies in the literature on general anaesthesia in paediatric patients having surgical procedures.•Our results support the literature that there is a lower incidence of adverse events for procedures under general anaesthesia than with reports using oral and intravenous sedation.