Paediatric anaesthesia
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Feb 2019
Allergy alerts - the incidence of parentally reported allergies in children presenting for general anaesthesia.
Pediatric patients increasingly report allergies, including allergies to food and medications. We sought to determine the incidence and, nature of parent-reported allergies in children presenting for surgery and its significance for anesthetists. ⋯ Only the minority of parent-reported allergies in pediatric surgical patients were specialist confirmed and likely to be clinically relevant. Self-reported food allergy is commonly specialist verified whereas reactions to medications were generally not. Over-reporting of allergies is increasingly common and limits clinician choice of medications. Better education of patients and their families and more timely verification or dismissal of parent-reported reactions is urgently needed.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Feb 2019
Review Meta AnalysisA Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis on the histological and neurobehavioral long term effects of dexmedetomidine.
Recent experimental studies suggest that currently used anesthetics have neurotoxic effects on young animals. Clinical studies are increasingly publishing about the effects of anesthesia on the long-term outcome, providing contradictory results. The selective alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonist dexmedetomidine has been suggested as an alternative nontoxic sedative agent. ⋯ In animals, dexmedetomidine was found not to induce histologic injury and to show a beneficial effect when administered with another anesthetic. No clinical results on the long-term effects in children have been identified yet.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Feb 2019
What are the validity and reliability of the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale-Short Form in children less than 2 years old?
Accurate measurement of preoperative anxiety is important for pediatric surgical patients' care as well as for monitoring anxiety-reducing interventions. The modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale-short form is well validated for this purpose in children aged 2 years and above, but not in younger children. ⋯ These findings support the validity and reliability of the Dutch version of the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale-short form in children less than 2-years-old.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Feb 2019
Incidence of adverse events attributable to bupivacaine liposome injectable suspension or plain bupivacaine for postoperative pain in pediatric surgical patients: A retrospective matched cohort analysis.
Surgical wound infiltration with local anesthetics is common as part of multimodal analgesia and enhanced recovery pathways in pediatric surgical patients. Liposomal bupivacaine can provide up to 92 hours of pain relief, and was approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administration for local infiltration in adults. It is also commonly used by pediatric surgeons, but its safety profile in this age group has not been described. ⋯ In a cohort of pediatric surgical patients receiving wound infiltration with either plain or liposomal bupivacaine, we identified no cases of local anesthetic systemic toxicity syndrome, and only few patients with any sign or symptom that could potentially be related to local anesthetic toxicity.