Paediatric anaesthesia
-
Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2011
ReviewOutcome, risk, and error and the child with obstructive sleep apnea.
Adenotonsillectomy is the mainstay of treatment for pediatric obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). However, there is evidence that the child with severe OSAS is at increased risk of respiratory compromise. The most difficult risk factor to assess is the severity of OSAS, and these difficulties are reviewed.
-
Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2011
ReviewLessons for pediatric anesthesia from audit and incident reporting.
This review will attempt to put the various systems that allow clinicians to assess errors, omissions, or avoidable incidents into context and where possible, look for areas that deserve more or less attention and resource specifically for those of us who practice pediatric anesthesia. Different approaches will be contrasted with respect to their outputs in terms of positive impact on the practice of anesthesia. ⋯ Implementation strategies are considered alongside the reports as the reports cannot be considered end points themselves. Specific areas where pediatric anesthetics has failed to address recurring risk through any currently available tools will be highlighted.
-
Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2011
ReviewTolerance and addiction; the patient, the parent or the clinician?
Tolerance has been recognized for some time where chronic exposure to certain drugs, particularly benzodiazepines and opioids, is associated with apparent tachyphylaxis. When these drugs are stopped or progressively reduced as in 'tapering', withdrawal symptoms may result. Tolerance and the flip side of the coin, withdrawal, are the determinants of addiction. ⋯ When these agents are withdrawn, the adaptive mechanisms, devoid of substrate, take time to diminish and produce symptoms recognizable under the term of 'withdrawal'. Children may be exposed to these agents in different ways; in utero, as a result of substances that the mother ingests by enteral, parenteral or inhalational means that are transmitted to the infant via the placenta; as a result of an anesthetic for surgery; or as a result of sedation and analgesia administered to offset the stresses and trauma inherent from intensive care treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit or pediatric intensive care unit. Additionally, anesthetic and intensive care staff are exposed to powerful and addictive drugs as part of everyday practice, not simply by overt access, but also by subliminal environmental exposure.
-
The ability to compare intensive care units (ICUs) and determine whether they provide the same level of care with regard to efficacy, efficiency, and quality is a cornerstone of understanding critical care and improving the quality of that care. Without collecting high-quality data, adjusted for severity of illness and analyzed in a comparative fashion, it would not be possible to describe best practices objectively, to identify which ICUs are doing a good job or to learn from those units that are. ⋯ A data collecting network, Virtual Pediatric Systems, limited liability corporation (VPS, LLC), designed for the purposes of determining where differences in critical care can be identified and the value that this adds in improving quality is discussed. Finally, results from this large data sharing collaborative describing the practice of pediatric critical care are included for the purpose of pediatric intensive care units practice benchmarks.
-
Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2011
ReviewAnesthesia and neurotoxicity to the developing brain: the clinical relevance.
Laboratory work has confirmed that general anesthetics cause increased neuronal apoptosis and changes to the morphology of dendritic spines in the developing brains of animals. It is an effect seen with most volatile anesthetics as well as with ketamine and propofol. The effects are dose dependent and seen over particular periods of early development. ⋯ These studies are also not without limitations. Thus it remains unclear what role anesthesia exposure in infancy actually plays in determining neurobehavioral outcome. To date studies can neither confirm that anesthesia plays a role nor rule it out.