Dexmedetomidine as a Rapid Bolus for Treatment and Prophylactic Prevention of Emergence Agitation in Anesthetized Children.

Background: Administration of dexmedetomidine (DEX) in the pediatric population for its sedative, analgesic, and anxiolytic properties has been widely reported, despite there being no label indication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for pediatric patients.

Perioperative crystalloid and colloid fluid management in children: where are we and how did we get here?

It has been more than 50 yr since the landmark article in which Holliday and Segar (Pediatrics 1957;19:823-32) proposed the rate and composition of parenteral maintenance fluids for hospitalized children. Much of our practice of fluid administration in the perioperative period is based on this article. The glucose, electrolyte, and intravascular volume requirements of the pediatric surgical patient may be quite different than the original population described, and consequently, use of traditional hypotonic fluids proposed by Holliday and Segar may cause complications, such as hyperglycemia and hyponatremia, in the postoperative surgical patient.