Paediatric anaesthesia
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Aug 2024
Reducing postoperative hypothermia in infants: Quality improvement in China.
Unintended postoperative hypothermia in infants is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. We noted consistent hypothermia postoperatively in more than 60% of our neonatal intensive care (NICU) babies. Therefore, we set out to determine whether a targeted quality improvement (QI) project could decrease postoperative hypothermia rates in infants. ⋯ Our QI project reduced postoperative hypothermia without incurring hyperthermia through multidisciplinary team collaboration with the guidance of QI experts from the USA.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2024
Current pediatric pain practice in Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia: A prospective survey of anesthetists.
Children in hospital experience significant pain, either inherent with their pathology, or caused by diagnostic/therapeutic procedures. Little is known about pediatric pain practices in sub-Saharan Africa. This survey aimed to gain insight into current pain management practices among specialist physician anesthetists in four sub-Saharan African countries. ⋯ This survey provides insight into pediatric pain practices in these four countries. Good availability of a variety of analgesics, positive pain prescription practices, and utilization of some non-pharmacological pain management strategies are encouraging, and suggest that achieving good pain control despite limited resources is attainable. Areas for improvement include the development of institutional guidelines, routine utilization of pain assessment tools, and access to regional anesthesia and other advanced pain management techniques.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2024
Randomized Controlled TrialEvaluation of parental anxiety following three methods of pre-anesthesia counseling: Video, brochure and verbal communication.
The purpose of this study is to provide comprehensive and efficient pre-anesthesia counseling (PAC) utilizing audiovisual aids and to examine their effect on parental anxiety. ⋯ The results of our study suggest that pre-anesthesia counseling by video or a brochure before the day of surgery is associated with a higher reduction in parental anxiety when compared to verbal communication.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2024
Lidocaine patch as noninvasive alternative treatment option in children with anterior cutaneous nerve entrapment syndrome: A retrospective case series.
Chronic abdominal pain in children is occasionally caused by anterior cutaneous nerve entrapment syndrome (ACNES). Diagnosing and treating this typical peripheral abdominal wall neuropathy is challenging. Management usually starts with minimally invasive tender point injections. Nevertheless, these injections can be burdensome and might even be refused by children or their parents. However, a surgical neurectomy is far more invasive. Treatment with a Lidocaine 5% medicated patch is successfully used in a variety of peripheral neuropathies. ⋯ Lidocaine patches provides pain relief in a substantial portion of children with ACNES.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2024
Metabolomic profiling of pediatric post-tonsillectomy pain: A proof-of-concept study.
Tonsillectomies are among the most common surgical procedures in children, with over 500 000 cases annually in the United States. Despite universal administration of intraoperative opioid analgesia, three out of five children undergoing tonsillectomy report moderate-to-severe pain upon recovering from anesthesia. The underlying molecular mechanisms of post-tonsillectomy pain are not well understood, limiting the development of targeted treatment strategies. Our study aimed to identify candidate serum metabolites associated with varying severity of post-tonsillectomy pain. ⋯ This study identified novel candidate biomarker panels that effectively differentiated varying severity of post-tonsillectomy pain. Further research is needed to validate these data and to explore their clinical implications for personalized pain management in children undergoing painful surgeries.