Paediatric anaesthesia
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Feb 2010
Spinal needle design and size affect the incidence of postdural puncture headache in children.
In adults, pencil point spinal needles are known to be less traumatic and hence to be superior compared with cutting point needles in respect of postpuncture complications. In children, only a few trials have evaluated the difference in the incidence of postdural puncture headache (PDPH) using spinal needles with different tip designs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the success rate and the incidence of PDPH and backache following spinal anesthesia (SA) with the two types of needles currently in use for children. ⋯ The data suggest that 27G pencil point spinal needles lead to less PDPH compared to 26G cutting point spinal needles in children.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Feb 2010
Review Meta AnalysisEfficacy of postoperative epidural analgesia in adolescent scoliosis surgery: a meta-analysis.
Scoliosis surgery is one of the most painful operations performed. Postoperative pain management has been historically based on the use of intravenous opioids. Many of the adolescents who undergo these procedures are at increased risk for opioid-related side effects because of underlying medical problems. Epidural analgesia has been demonstrated to provide superior pain control with fewer side effects for chest and abdominal surgery in children as well as adults. We aim to analyze the available literature for sufficient evidence to allow recommendations regarding the use of epidural analgesia with parenteral opioids vs. intravenous opioids only. ⋯ Epidural analgesia is beneficial to patients in terms of improving pain control and reducing side effects. The influence on respiratory depression, length of stay in the intensive care unit, or mortality is not available in the literature at this time.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Feb 2010
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyA randomized trial of propofol consumption and recovery profile with BIS-guided anesthesia compared to standard practice in children.
To evaluate the impact of bispectral index (BIS) monitoring on the consumption of propofol and recovery from anesthesia compared to the standard clinical practice in children. ⋯ Our study showed no benefit of BIS-guided propofol administration on anesthetic consumption or recovery compared to standard anesthetic practice.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Feb 2010
Multicenter StudyAPA national audit of pediatric opioid infusions.
A prospective audit of neonates, infants, and children receiving opioid infusion techniques managed by pediatric acute pain teams from across the United Kingdom and Eire was undertaken over a period of 17 months. The aim was to determine the incidence, nature, and severity of serious clinical incidents (SCIs) associated with the techniques of continuous opioid infusion, patient-controlled analgesia, and nurse-controlled analgesia in patients aged 0-18. ⋯ The overall incidence of 1 : 10,000 of serious harm with opioid infusion techniques in children is comparable to the risks with pediatric epidural infusions and central blocks identified by two recent UK national audits (1,2). Avoidable factors were identified including prescription and pump programming errors, use of concurrent sedatives or opioids by different routes and overgenerous dosing in infants. Early respiratory depression in patients with specific risk factors, such as young age, neurodevelopmental, respiratory, or cardiac comorbidities, who are receiving nurse-controlled analgesia or continuous opioid infusion suggests that closer monitoring for at least 2 h is needed for these cases. As a result of this audit, we can provide parents with better information on relative risks to help the process of informed consent.