Research has shown that women have leadership ability equal to or better than that of their male counterparts, yet proportionally fewer women than men achieve leadership positions and promotion in medicine. The Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Initiative (WELI) was founded within the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) in 2018 as a multidimensional program to help address the significant career development, leadership, and promotion gender gap between men and women in anesthesiology. Herein, we describe WELI’s development and implementation with an early assessment of effectiveness at 2 years. Members received an anonymous, voluntary survey by e-mail to assess whether they believed WELI was beneficial in several broad domains: career development, networking, project implementation and completion, goal setting, mentorship, well-being, and promotion and leadership. The response rate was 60.5% (92 of 152). The majority ranked several aspects of WELI to be very or extremely valuable, including the protégé-advisor dyads, workshops, nomination to join WELI, and virtual facilitated networking. For most members, WELI helped to improve optimism about their professional future. Most also reported that WELI somewhat or absolutely contributed to project improvement or completion, finding new collaborators, and obtaining invitations to be visiting speakers. Among those who applied for promotion or leadership positions, 51% found WELI to be somewhat or absolutely valuable to their application process, and 42% found the same in applying for leadership positions. Qualitative analysis of free-text survey responses identified 5 main themes: (1) feelings of empowerment and confidence, (2) acquisition of new skills in mentoring, coaching, career development, and project implementation, (3) clarification and focus on goal setting, (4) creating meaningful connections through networking, and (5) challenges from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the inability to sustain the advisor-protégé connection. We conclude that after 2 years, the WELI program has successfully supported career development for the majority of protégés and advisors. Continued assessment of whether WELI can meaningfully contribute to attainment of promotion and leadership positions will require study across a longer period. WELI could serve as a programmatic example to support women’s career development in other subspecialties.

Pediatric cardiac anesthesiology has developed as a subsubspecialty of anesthesiology over the past 70 years. The evolution of this specialty has led to the establishment in 2005 of a dedicated professional society, the Congenital Cardiac Anesthesia Society (CCAS). By 2010, multiple training pathways for pediatric cardiac anesthesia emerged. Eight programs in the United States offered advanced pediatric cardiac anesthesia with variable duration, ranging from 3 to 12 months. Other programs offered a combined fellow/staff position for 1 year. The need for a standardized training pathway was recognized by the Pediatric Anesthesia Leadership Council (PALC) and CCAS in 2014. Specifically, it was recommended that pediatric cardiac anesthesiology be a second, 12-month advanced fellowship following pediatric anesthesia to acquire skills unique from those acquired during a pediatric anesthesia fellowship. This was reiterated in 2018, when specific pediatric cardiac anesthesia training milestones were developed through consensus by the CCAS leadership. However, given the continuous increasing demand for well-trained pediatric cardiac anesthesiologists, it is essential that a supply of comprehensively trained physicians exists. High-quality training programs are therefore necessary to ensure excellent clinical care and enhanced patient safety. Currently, there are 23 programs offering one or more positions for 1-year pediatric cardiac anesthesia fellowship. Due to the diverse curriculum and evaluation process, formalization of the training with accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) was the obvious next step. Initial inquiry started in April 2020. The ACGME recognized pediatric cardiac anesthesia as a subsubspecialty in February 2021. The program requirements and milestones for the 1-year fellowship training were developed in 2021 and 2022. This special article reviews the history of pediatric cardiac anesthesia training, the ACGME application process, the development of program requirements and milestones, and implementation.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or vaping use in adolescents has emerged as a public health crisis that impacts the perioperative care of this vulnerable population. E-cigarettes have become the most commonly used tobacco products among youth in the United States. Fruit and mint flavors and additives such as marijuana have enticed children and adolescents. E-cigarette, or vaping, product use–associated lung injury (EVALI) is a newly identified lung disease linked to vaping. Clinical presentation of EVALI can be varied, but most commonly includes the respiratory system, gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and constitutional symptoms. Clinical management of EVALI has consisted of vaping cessation and supportive therapy, including supplemental oxygen, noninvasive ventilation, mechanical ventilation, glucocorticoids, and empiric antibiotics, until infectious causes are eliminated, and in the most severe cases, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Currently, although there is an insufficient evidence to determine the safety and the efficacy of e-cigarettes for perioperative smoking cessation, EVALI clearly places these patients at an increased risk of perioperative morbidity. Given the relatively recent introduction of e-cigarettes, the long-term impact on adolescent health is unknown. As a result, the paucity of postoperative outcomes in this potentially vulnerable population does not support evidence-based recommendations for the management of these patients. Clinicians should identify “at-risk” individuals during preanesthetic evaluations and adjust the risk stratification accordingly. Our societies encourage continued education of the public and health care providers of the risks associated with vaping and nicotine use and encourage regular preoperative screening and postoperative outcome studies of patients with regard to smoking and vaping use.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a pernicious disease with a diverse etiology in the pediatric population. Despite the increased availability of drug therapies, pulmonary arterial hypertension continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality. In pediatric patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension who have failed medical therapy, a few studies have demonstrated the role of balloon atrial septostomy as a bridge to lung transplantation or a means of improving symptomatology. However, no data exists on the utilization of balloon atrial septostomy as a palliative intervention to wean from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) when all other therapies are exhausted. Here we describe a case series of two pediatric patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, requiring ECMO support, who were successfully weaned from ECMO following balloon atrial septostomy.

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Utilization, wastage, and adverse consequences of assigning one full red blood cell (RBC) unit were investigated for children undergoing craniosynostosis surgery. The authors hypothesized that significant RBC wastage in the perioperative period exists for pediatric craniofacial surgery. The authors sought to determine what factors could guide patient-specific blood product preparation by evaluating utilization and wastage of RBCs in pediatric patients undergoing surgical correction of craniosynostosis. Eighty-five children with craniosynostosis undergoing surgical correction at our institution between July 2013 and June 2015 were identified. Fifty-three patients received RBC transfusion in the perioperative period, while 32 patients were not transfused. Primary outcome measures were intraoperative, postoperative, and total percent of RBC wastage. Secondary analysis compared the impact of patient weight and procedure type on perioperative RBC wastage. Of the 53 patients who received perioperative RBC transfusion, 35 patients received a volume of blood less than the full volume of the RBC unit while 18 patients received the full volume of blood. There was no significant relationship between perioperative RBC wastage, the type of craniofacial procedure performed, or the duration of surgical time. Children who received a perioperative transfusion and had RBC wastage weighed significantly less than those who received a full volume. These findings suggest that for craniofacial surgical patients weighing less than 10 kg, a protocol that splits cross-matched RBC units can decrease perioperative RBC wastage and blood donor exposure. A future prospective study will determine the success of this intervention as well as the potential to decrease exposure to multiple blood donors.

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