End-stage renal disease (ESRD) in children is rare with an incidence of 5-15 per million depending on geographic location. The best treatment option is kidney transplantation, which delays end-organ damage, enhances physical growth and improves quality of life. Advances in immunosuppressive therapy, surgical techniques and donor selection have improved both graft and patient survival over the last decades. Best outcomes are achieved with a pre-emptive transplantation (before the initiation of dialysis) from a living donor and at a young recipient age (<5 years). The resulting one-and five-year graft survival rates are then 99.5 and 94.9 percent, respectively. 1 Because of the low incidence of kidney transplantation in children and the complexities related to patient and surgery, care tends to be centralized in designated centers. Moreover, only 20% of pediatric kidney transplantations occur in recipients under the age of five, making it a rare procedure for the pediatric anesthesiologist to encounter. Notwithstanding, there is a clear lack of evidence-based guidelines resulting in diverse perioperative approaches. 2,3 The purpose of this review of recent literature is to describe the pathophysiological changes occurring in children with ESRD. In addition, we aim to provide recommendations and potential guidelines for anesthesia care in children undergoing either kidney transplantation or other surgical procedures in the presence of a donor kidney. | EPIDEMI OLOGYChildren account for less than 2% of all ESRD patients and about 5% of all kidney transplantations in Europe and North America. Kidney

Background A living‐donor (adult) kidney transplantation in young children requires an increased cardiac output to maintain adequate perfusion of the relatively large kidney. To achieve this, protocols commonly advise liberal fluid administration guided by high target central venous pressure. Such therapy may lead to good renal outcomes, but the risk of tissue edema is substantial. Aims We aimed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of the transpulmonary thermodilution technique to measure cardiac output in pediatric recipients. The second aim was to evaluate whether a cardiac output‐guided hemodynamic therapy algorithm could induce less liberal fluid administration, while preserving good renal results and achieving increased target cardiac output and blood pressure. Methods In twelve consecutive recipients, cardiac output was measured with transpulmonary thermodilution (PiCCO device, Pulsion). The algorithm steered administration of fluids, norepinephrine and dobutamine. Hemodynamic values were obtained before, during and after transplantation. Results are given as mean (SD) [minimum‐maximum]. Results Age and weight of recipients was 3.2 (0.97) [1.6‐4.9] yr and 14.1 (2.4) [10.4‐18] kg, respectively. No complications related to cardiac output monitoring occurred. After transplantation, cardiac index increased with 31% (95% CI = 15%‐48%). Extravascular lung water and central venous pressure did not change. Fluids given decreased from 158 [124‐191] mL kg−1 in the first 2 patients to 80 (18) [44‐106] mL kg−1 in the last 10 patients. The latter amount was 23 mL kg−1 less (95% CI = 6‐40 mL kg−1) than in one recent study, but similar to that in another. After reperfusion, all patients received norepinephrine (maximum dose 0.45 (0.3) [0.1‐0.9] mcg kg−1 min−1). Patient and graft survivals were 100% with excellent kidney function at 6 months post‐transplantation. Conclusion Transpulmonary thermodilution‐cardiac output monitoring appeared to be safe and feasible. Using the cardiac output‐guided algorithm led to excellent renal results with a trend toward less fluids in favor of norepinephrine.

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Thermodilution cardiac output monitoring, using a thermistor-tipped intravascular catheter, is used in critically ill patients to guide hemodynamic therapy. Often, these patients also need magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnostic or prognostic reasons. As thermodilution catheters contain metal, they are considered MRI-unsafe and advised to be removed prior to investigation. However, removal and replacement of the catheter carries risks of bleeding, perforation and infection. This research is an in vitro safety assessment of the PiCCO™ thermodilution catheter during 3 T Magnetic Resonance Imaging (3T-MRI).  In a 3T-MRI environment, three different PiCCO™ catheter sizes were investigated in an agarose-gel, tissue mimicking phantom. Two temperature probes measured radiofrequency-induced heating; one at the catheter tip and one at a reference point. Magnetically induced catheter dislocation was assessed by visual observation as well as by analysis of the tomographic images. For all tested catheters, the highest measured temperature increase was 0.2 °C at the center of the bore and 0.3 °C under “worst-case” setting for the tested MRI pulse sequences. No magnetically induced catheter displacements were observed. Under the tested circumstances, no heating or dislocation of the PiCCO™ catheter was observed in a tissue mimicking phantom during 3T-MRI. Leaving the catheter in the critically ill patient during MRI investigation might pose a lower risk of complications than catheter removal and replacement.

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