Paediatric anaesthesia
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Infants with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome usually present different abnormalities which may require surgical correction. Anaesthetic management may be complicated by abnormal airway anatomy, congenital heart disease and severe hypoglycaemia. Careful preoperative evaluation, perioperative monitoring and suitable choice of anaesthetic technique are required for a successful outcome. We report the perioperative management of a patient with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome presenting for omphalocoele surgery on his first day of life and for bilateral inguinal hernia repair four months later.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jan 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialA double-blind comparison of morphine infusion and patient controlled analgesia in children.
The analgesia provided after major abdominal surgery in 30 children by continuous morphine infusion and patient controlled analgesia, also using morphine, was compared using a double-blind, double-dummy design. The groups of children were comparable in age, weight, duration of operation and sex ratio. ⋯ Children aged between nine and 15 years achieved better pain relief with patient controlled analgesia. No difference could be shown in children aged between five and eight years.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jan 1996
ReviewAcute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in neonates and children.
ARDS remains a syndrome which despite all efforts poses problems in exact definition (cause, course and severity). Most of the existing information comes from clinical observations and uncontrolled studies and is therefore of limited value. ⋯ With the introduction of gentler respiratory support techniques (small tidal volumes and pressure limitation, permissive hypercapnia and HFO) and appropriate measures to reduce oxygen toxicity (titration of PEEP, possibly NO), iatrogenic lung injury, indistinguishable from ARDS, can be reduced, and this might improve survival rates. For the future, modulation of the host's inflammatory response may hold great promises for prevention and treatment of ARDS, but such strategies need to be explored with well controlled clinical trials, respecting the complexity of the issue.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jan 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialMorphine consumption and respiratory depression in children receiving postoperative analgesia from continuous morphine infusion or patient controlled analgesia.
Thirty children, aged between five and 15 years, were randomly allocated to receive postoperative analgesia from continuous morphine infusion (CMI) or patient controlled analgesia (PCA), also using morphine. The children's morphine consumption, respiratory rates, oxygen saturations and observation points during which they were sleeping were recorded during two periods, one on the day of operation and one the following day. ⋯ Children aged between nine and 15 years using PCA had significantly lower minimum respiratory rates and minimum oxygen saturations than similarly aged children receiving continuous infusions. There was no significant difference between the PCA and CMI groups in the number of observation times that the children were asleep or in the minimum respiratory rates and minimum oxygen saturations in the awake and sleeping children.