Use of ultrasound to estimate the prevalence of occult spinal dysraphism in children undergoing urogenital and anorectal surgeries: A cross-sectional study.

Background And Aim: The use of ultrasound has immensely increased the safety toward regional blocks and central venous access and has been considered as the standard of care for securing central access. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of occult spinal dysraphism using ultrasound in children less than 2 years of age undergoing elective urogenital or anorectal surgery.

Material And Methods: The lumbosacral region of 159 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) category I/II patients, posted for elective urogenital and anorectal surgery was scanned with ultrasound, prior to giving caudal block.

Operative fasting guidelines and postoperative feeding in paediatric anaesthesia-current concepts.

Preoperative fasting period is the prescribed time prior to any procedure done either under general anaesthesia, regional anaesthesia or sedation, when oral intake of liquids or solids are not allowed. This mandatory fasting is a safety precaution that helps to protect from pulmonary aspiration of gastric contents which may occur any time during anaesthesia. We searched PUBMED for English language articles using keywords including child, paediatric, anaesthesia, fasting, preoperative, gastric emptying.