Paediatric anaesthesia
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jan 1999
Case ReportsExtrapyramidal side-effects from droperidol mixed with morphine for patient-controlled analgesia in two children.
We report two cases of extrapyramidal reactions occurring in children following the use of droperidol in combination with morphine for patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). Symptoms appeared 38 and 27 h, respectively, after commencement and after a total dose of 0.14 mg.kg-1 and 0.17 mg.kg-1, respectively. Although effective and safe in adult patients, we recommend caution with the use of droperidol-morphine mixtures for PCA in paediatric patients.
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Postoperative conditions in hospital and at home were evaluated in 200 paediatric daycase patients by using questionnaires and telephone interviews. Pain was assessed by behaviour observation or a faces rating scale depending on age. Anaesthetic methods, nausea/vomiting, analgesics and parents' aspects were also recorded. ⋯ The increased degree of pain at home was especially pronounced after regional anaesthesia. The total incidence of nausea/vomiting was 28% and fentanyl caused nausea and vomiting in a significantly higher proportion of cases. The study points out that immediate postoperative comfort obtained by prophylactic analgesia needs to be followed by analgesics given on a continuous basis for the first days after surgery.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jan 1999
Evaluation of the efficiency of heat and moisture exchangers during paediatric anaesthesia.
This study evaluates the efficiency of heat and moisture exchangers (HMEs) in allowing adequate humidification and warming during anaesthesia in children. Eighteen paediatric patients undergoing anaesthesia were divided into two groups: group A ten patients: infants up to 10 kg-->Hygrobaby HME; group B 8 patients: children above 10 kg-->Hygroboy HME. The following parameters were evaluated: body temperature (bT), room temperature (rT), fresh gas temperature, HME warm-up time, inspired and expired gases temperature and humidity, conserving efficiency, and duration of anaesthesia. ⋯ The conserving efficiency was good (0.93 in both groups). A positive correlation was found between efficiency and fresh gas temperature. HMEs did not meet the minimum standards for humidity and heating during anaesthesia in children, although their conserving efficiency was found to be satisfactory.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jan 1999
Letter Case ReportsMasked bleeding posttonsillectomy with ondansetron.