As a result of the low rate of complications, RA techniques have a good safety profile and can be used to provide postoperative analgesia. In addition, the results should encourage anesthesiologists to continue to use peripheral instead of central (including caudal) blocks as often as possible when appropriate.

Extradural clonidine produces analgesia in adults. To assess its efficacy in children, we randomized 45 pediatric patients aged 1-7 yr presenting for a subumbilical surgery into three groups of 15 each. After halothane and N2O/O2 induction, and with a double-blind protocol, caudal anesthesia was performed with 1 mL/kg of 0.25% bupivacaine. Epinephrine 1/200,000 was added in one group (EG), 1 microgram/kg of clonidine in another group (CG), and no additional medication in the last group (BG). Postoperative analgesia was evaluated using the Broadman "objective pain/discomfort scale" (OPS) at 1-h intervals until the first analgesic administration. There were no differences among the groups in age, weight, duration of surgery, baseline systolic arterial pressure, and heart rate. The mean (+/- SD) duration of analgesia was longer in the CG (987 +/- 573 min) than in the EG (377 +/- 341 min) and BG (460 +/- 439 min); P < 0.01. The maximal OPS scores were lower in the CG than in the EG and BG (2.3 +/- 1.6 vs 3.4 +/- 1.4 and 3.4 +/- 1.8, respectively; P < 0.05). More patients in the CG (n = 7) than in the EG (n = 1) and BG (n = 2) required no postoperative analgesia; P < 0.05. No differences were found among the groups for the minimal respiratory rate and minimal Spo2 values in the postoperative phase, and there were no differences among the groups for heart rate and systolic arterial pressure during the 3 h after caudal anesthesia. We conclude that the duration of postoperative analgesia with caudal bupivacaine was significantly increased by the addition of 1 microgram/kg of clonidine.

High-level evidence is not yet available to guide dosage of LA used in regional blocks in children. The ASRA/ESRA recommendations intend to provide guidance in order to reduce the large variability of LA dosage currently observed in clinical practice.

This prospective survey based on a free hotline permanent telephone service allowed us to estimate the incidence of major complications related to regional anesthesia and to provide a detailed analysis of these complications.

Lidocaine is an amide local anaesthetic initially used intravenously as an antiarrhythmic agent. At some point it was proposed that intravenous lidocaine (IVL) had an analgesic effect that could be potentially beneficial in perioperative settings. Since these preliminary reports, a large body of evidence confirmed that IVL had anti-inflammatory and opiate-sparing effects, a combination of characteristics leading to an array of effects such as a decrease in postoperative pain and opiate consumption, and a reduction in the duration of digestive ileus. Additional studies demonstrated IVL to possess antithrombotic, antimicrobial and antitumoral effects. Beneficial effects of IVL have been characterized in abdominal surgery but remain controversial in other types of surgeries. Because the quality of evidence was limited, due to inconsistency, imprecision and study quality, recent conclusions from meta-analysis pooling together all types of surgery stated the uncertainty about IVL benefits. Additional indications such as the prevention of propofol-induced injection pain, prevention of hyperalgesia, protection against bronchial reactivity by bronchotracheal relaxation during surgery, and the increase in depth of general anaesthesia have since emerged. IVL is rapidly distributed in the body and metabolized by the liver. With the commonly recommended doses, lidocaine's therapeutic index remains very high and the plasma concentrations stay largely below the cardiotoxic and neurotoxic threshold levels, a notion that may be used by clinicians to draw conclusions on the benefit-risk profile of IVL in comparison to other analgesic strategies. The purpose of this review is to address the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of lidocaine in healthy and pathological conditions.

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Hypnosis seems effective as premedication in children scheduled for surgery. It alleviates preoperative anxiety, especially during induction of anesthesia and reduces behavioral disorders during the first postoperative week.

These data show benefits of using an alkalinized lidocaine-filled ETT cuff in combination with water-soluble gel lubrication in preventing post-intubation sore throat.