Paediatric anaesthesia
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Mar 2025
ReviewError Traps in Developing a Pediatric Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Program.
Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathways have been shown to improve patient outcomes, increase patient satisfaction, and decrease costs. First created and implemented in the adult population, these pathways are now commonplace and continue to expand in the pediatric realm. ⋯ Key themes include departmental and institutional support, stakeholder engagement, awareness of pathways, data management and dissemination, and long-term maintenance including Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. Pathway development teams should be aware of these considerations and potential pitfalls, and focusing on them can promote long-term success for a well-designed pathway.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Mar 2025
Retrospective Cohort Study of Perioperative Complications in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Children Testing SARS-CoV-2-Positive Within 21 Days Before Surgery.
COVID-19 increases anesthetic risk in children, but understanding of complication differences by symptom presence and severity is limited. We hypothesized that symptomatic COVID-19+ children, especially with lower respiratory symptoms, would have higher perioperative complications than asymptomatic patients and that complications would be higher in all patients diagnosed < 6 days before anesthesia. ⋯ The presence of symptoms, particularly of the lower respiratory tract, should be strongly considered in the shared decision-making process between providers and families when discussing the potential delay of procedures in the setting of COVID-19.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Mar 2025
Observational StudyThe Newborn Infant Parasympathetic Evaluation Index for Assessment of Procedural Pain and Discomfort in Mechanically Ventilated Pediatric Intensive Care Patients: A Prospective, Exploratory, Observational Study.
The heart rate variability-based Newborn Infant Parasympathetic Evaluation (NIPE) Index is a continuous noninvasive tool for the assessment of pain and discomfort in infants. Little is known about its performance in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) setting, where assessment of pain/discomfort is usually based on discontinuous observational scoring systems or personal experience of medical staff. ⋯ The NIPE detects procedural pain and discomfort in conscious mechanically ventilated infants with an accuracy comparable to established clinical scoring systems. However, because of significant interindividual variability of NIPE values and frequent data recording failure associated with patient movement, we believe it is premature to recommend its use in conscious infants.