Prevention of emergence delirium in children undergoing tonsillectomy: A scoping review of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.

Emergence delirium (ED) is a common and distressing postoperative complication occurring in paediatric patients following general anaesthesia, with reported incidence rates of 10–80% in children undergoing tonsillectomy. It is associated with physical injury, parental distress, increased nursing burden, and prolonged post-anaesthesia care unit stay. Despite a substantial body of primary research examining pharmacological and non-pharmacological prevention strategies, no scoping review has comprehensively mapped the full landscape of interventions, outcome measurement tools, or evidence gaps in this population. This scoping review aims to systematically map the available evidence on all intervention types studied for the prevention of emergence delirium in paediatric patients undergoing tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy under general anaesthesia.