• Emma Whyte and Gillian Lauder.
• Department of Pediatric Anesthesia, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
• Paediatr Anaesth. 2012 Feb 1;22(2):173-5.

AbstractThe intrathecal infusion of drugs to provide analgesia for terminally ill children with refractory pain is a rarely utilized but very effective technique. A number of pharmacological agents, most commonly opioids and local anesthetics, have been administered intrathecally for this purpose. However, tachyphylaxis and neuraxial opioid-related side effects can limit their utility. The alpha-2 agonist clonidine is commonly used to augment local anesthetic techniques for postsurgical pain in children and for the management of refractory cancer pain in adults, but there is only a single report of the use of clonidine intrathecally in a terminally ill child. We present the case of the youngest reported child to have received intrathecal analgesia for terminal care: a 3-year-old boy with advanced pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma, whose refractory pain was managed effectively with an intrathecal infusion of bupivacaine and preservative-free clonidine.© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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