Experimental Pain Sensitivity and Parental Pain Catastrophizing.

Background/objectives: Variability in biopsychosocial factors can explain the interindividual variability in pain. One factor that can impact pain is the pain catastrophizing level. Interestingly, parental pain catastrophizing is related to the severity of the clinical pain of their children.

Safety and Tolerability of Intravenous Lidocaine Infusions as Opioid Adjunct for Children Hospitalized With Sickle Cell Vaso-Occlusive Pain.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) vaso-occlusive episode (VOE) pain is treated with opioids, and non-opioid adjuvants may reduce pain severity without opioid side effects. We retrospectively investigated the safety and tolerability of intravenous lidocaine infusions as an adjunct to opioids in children and adolescents during VOE hospitalizations. In 2 years, lidocaine was administered in 64.

Chronic pain in pediatric patients: epidemiology, pathophysiology, and mitigation strategies.

Purpose Of Review: To provide an updated summary on the epidemiology, pathophysiology, and treatment strategies of chronic pain in pediatric patients and its differences with chronic pain in adults.

Recent Findings: Chronic pain in children is common, can be debilitating and can progress into adulthood, thus it requires an interdisciplinary evaluation and management. Targeting interdisciplinary care, including psychology, physical, and/or occupational therapy, has been shown to improve pain and function.

Classification of posttransfusion adverse events using a publicly available artificial intelligence system.

Background: Correct classification of transfusion reactions is important not only for effective patient care and donor management but also for accurate tracking of events in hemovigilance systems. We compared the ability of a generative artificial intelligence (AI) system to correctly diagnose hypothetical clinical situations as transfusion reactions in comparison to previous studies reporting the accuracy of transfusion medicine (TM) specialists in assessing these cases.

Methods: An AI system was requested to assess 36 case scenarios to provide a diagnosis, severity, and imputability of the transfusion reactions using the CDC National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) criteria.

A single-center descriptive account of the use of pectoral nerve I and II nerve blocks for post-operative pain relief following pediatric sternotomy.

Regional anesthesia between the pectoralis major and minor was first described in 2011 as an alternative method to paravertebral blocks or epidurals for post-operative mastectomies. Since then, the use of pectoral nerve (PECS) blocks for post-operative pain management following thoracotomy, sternotomy, and other procedures in the anterior thorax has increased. While experience with this block is growing, the current understanding of its use in pediatric patients is limited.