Rapid cardiac ventricular pacing to facilitate embolization of vein of Galen malformations: technical note.

In BriefBabies born with life-threatening brain blood-vessel malformations can be helped with new heart pacemaker technology to temporarily stop the flow of blood in their bodies during surgery, for inducing hypotension to aid in controlled embolization.

Incidence of children at risk for obstructive sleep apnea undergoing common day surgery procedures.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBD) in children undergoing elective day surgery procedures.

Methods: A validated Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire (PSQ) was distributed to the parents of children aged 2months to 18 years who met inclusion criteria and were undergoing urologic, otolaryngologic, and general surgical day surgery procedures a 3-month period of time. The prevalence of children at risk for pediatric SRBD was determined from PSQ results.

Perioperative blood transfusion requirements in pediatric scoliosis surgery: the efficacy of tranexamic acid.

Background: Previous studies have noted that the use of antifibrinolytic medications can help reduce blood loss and transfusion requirements during cardiac, total joint arthroplasty, and spine surgery. Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been investigated in these patient groups but consensus with respect to the dosing regimen has not been achieved, especially in the pediatric scoliosis literature. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of 2 TXA dosing regimens on reducing transfusion requirements.

Immediate extubation of children following liver transplantation is safe and may be beneficial.

Background: Immediate tracheal extubation of selected adult patients after orthotopic liver transplant (OLT) is common practice. We hypothesized that selected children may be safely extubated immediately after OLT and avoid potentially deleterious effects of artificial ventilation and sedation.

Methods: After June 2002, we chose immediate extubation unless a specific contraindication was identified.

The ankle clonus test is not a clinically useful measure of spinal cord integrity in children.

Purpose: Bilateral flexion-induced ankle clonus has been proposed as a test of spinal cord integrity during anesthesia for scoliosis surgery. The purpose of this study was to establish the reliability of this test in normal children emerging from volatile anesthesia. A secondary objective was to determine if there was a difference in the validity of this test with either sevoflurane or isoflurane anesthesia.