• Jacek Litke, Agnieszka Pikulska, and Tomasz Wegner.
• Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy, Pomerania Medical University in Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland. jaclitke@life.pl
• Anaesthesiol Intensive Ther. 2012 Jul 1; 44 (3): 170-4.

AbstractThe majority of children, even those well prepared and with positive attitudes, experiences stress in the operating theatre and during the postoperative period. In some cases, the stress is even stronger for their parents. The role of anaesthetists is to minimize the unpleasant sensations by providing painless vein cannulation, uneventful induction of anaesthesia, suitably planned and timed analgesia, and prevention of postoperative vomiting. The effectiveness of combined analgesics, early administration of saturating doses and analgesia supplemented or based on methods of block anaesthesia - particularly on peripheral and local blocks, less appreciated in children, have been highlighted. Such a stress-reducing strategy should be initiated before hospitalisation and consistently continued to its completion or even longer, the example of which are one-day surgery patients who should receive prescriptions for or suitable drugs (mainly analgesics) on discharge for use in the home setting. Preparation of local programmes for management reducing surgery-associated stress in children is worth recommending.

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