• Julia M Rosenbloom, Kumaran Senthil, Alexander S Long, Whitney R Robinson, Kenneth N Peeples, John E Fiadjoe, and Ronald S Litman.
• Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
• Paediatr Anaesth. 2017 Nov 1; 27 (11): 114211471142-1147.

BackgroundAlthough it is known that a patient's race may influence their medical care, racial patterns of medication administration in pediatric anesthesia have not been well-studied. The aim of this study was to determine if differences exist between Black and White children with regard to administration of anesthetic and analgesic medications for a single procedure at our institution.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective review of medications administered to patients for emergency appendectomies at a large academic children's hospital from 2010 to 2015. We examined the association between patient race and administration of preoperative midazolam and intraoperative ondansetron, lidocaine, ketorolac, and weight-based doses of fentanyl and morphine.ResultsDuring the study period, 1680 patients (1329 White, 351 Black) underwent emergency appendectomy. There were no significant racial differences in administration of intraoperative anesthetic medications between Black and White children. In unadjusted analysis, Black children were less likely to receive preoperative midazolam than White children (OR=0.74 [95% CI, 0.58-0.94], P=.012). After adjusting for confounders, there was no evidence of racial differences in administration of preoperative or intraoperative medications.ConclusionWe did not find a significant difference in preoperative or intraoperative medication administration based on race when we adjusted for age, gender, and attending anesthesiologist practice patterns. We encourage all institutions to monitor their own practice patterns with regard to race.© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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