Global pediatric anesthesia-Anglophone West Africa perspective.

Background: This article gives the pediatric anesthesia perspective from Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, and Gambia, five out of six countries in Anglophone West Africa. Over 40% of the population of most of these countries are younger than 14 years and there is an increasing need for paediatric anesthesia services.

Findings: Workforce density ranges from 0.

Effectiveness of postoperative analgesia in the management of acute pain in day-case surgeries.

Background: Surgery is the most common source of acute pain.

Aim: To determine the intensity of acute pain following day case surgery and evaluate the effectiveness of the prescribed analgesics.

Methods: A descriptive observational study carried out at the main operating and the Urology Outpatient theatre suites of the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

Effects of low-dose intravenous dexamethasone combined with caudal analgesia on post-herniotomy pain.

Background: Caudal analgesia for postoperative pain relief in paediatric day-case surgery has been found to be of short duration, hence the need for addition of adjuncts to prolong the analgesia.

Objective: The objective of the study was to compare the analgesic effects of caudal block with or without low-dose intravenous dexamethasone in children undergoing day-case herniotomy.

Patients And Methods: This was a prospective randomised controlled study conducted in male patients, aged between 1 and 7 years scheduled for herniotomy.

Oral morphine effectiveness in Nigerian patients with advanced cancer.

Oral morphine elixir in the immediate release form became available in Nigeria in the year 2006 after decades of use in the treatment of cancer pain in many other countries. In order to determine the effectiveness of oral morphine in Nigerian patients, 182 patients presenting with severe cancer pain at the Radiotherapy Clinic, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria, were recruited in a prospective descriptive observational study. Information on patient's demography, diagnosis, baseline intensity and character of pain, morphine dosages, and effects were collected using a semistructured questionnaire administered at recruitment and biweekly in the follow-up period.

Esophageal, tympanic, rectal, and skin temperatures in children undergoing surgery with general anesthesia.

The purpose of this study was to determine the degrees of agreement between various sites of temperature measurement and examine the trend of body temperature in children during surgery under general anaesthesia. Thirty-six consecutive children who underwent surgery with general anaesthesia, had temperatures measured at the oesophagus, skin, ear canal and rectum at baseline, every 15 minutes for the first hour and every 30 minutes thereafter. Spearman correlation and Bland-Altman analyses were used to compare data and trends of mean differences assessed by line graphs.