Incidence of difficult bag-mask ventilation in children: a prospective observational study.

Background: Difficult airway (DA), including difficult bag-mask ventilation (DBMV), and difficult intubation (DI) is an important challenge for the pediatric anesthesiologist. While expected DBMV can be successfully managed with appropriate equipment and personnel, unexpected DBMV relies on the resources available and the experience of the anesthesiologist at the time of the emergency. The incidence and risk factors of unexpected DA in otherwise healthy children, including DBMV among pediatric patients are not known.

Bowel hematoma following an iliohypogastric-ilioinguinal nerve block.

We report a case of a subserosal small bowel hematoma following an ilioinguinal-iliohypogastric nerve block for an appendicectomy in a 6-year-old girl. The bowel hematoma was noted in the wall of the terminal ileum after opening the peritoneum. The hematoma was nonobstructing and the child remained asymptomatic.

Effects of midazolam on explicit vs implicit memory in a pediatric surgery setting.

Rationale: Placebo-controlled studies show that midazolam impairs explicit memory in children undergoing surgery (Buffett-Jerrott et al., Psychopharmacology 168:377-386, 2003; Kain et al., Anesthesiology 93:676-684, 2000).