Diagnostic laparoscopy with planned appendectomy: an integral step in the evaluation of unexplained right lower quadrant pain.

Recurrent right lower quadrant (RLQ) abdominal pain is often difficult to diagnose and treat. We reviewed our experience with diagnostic laparoscopy with planned appendectomy for children with unexplained RLQ pain. This procedure was performed when the cause of atypical RLQ pain could not be diagnosed by comprehensive medical and radiological evaluation.

Virtual reality modeling and computer-aided design in pediatric surgery: applications in laparoscopic pyloromyotomy.

As a test of the applicability of modern bioengineering tools to pediatric surgery, we developed by computer-aided design (CAD) methods and evaluated a virtual reality (VR) model of laparoscopic pyloromyotomy (LP) and created a set of retractable hook instruments, called Pylorohooks. Our VR model of LP incorporated the infant's body wall, stomach, and hypertrophied pylorus as well as laparoscopic cannulas and two Pylorohooks. CAD software was used to design the 3-mm-diameter, retractable, double-pronged, minimally-traumatic hook instrument.

Inguinal hernia in infants with very low birth weight.

Inguinal hernias (IH) are among the most commonly encountered surgical problems in infants with very low birth weight (VLBW, <1,500 g) with a reported incidence of 16%. A trend toward earlier operation has emerged in recent years, with most now being repaired before discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit. The authors review the many special concerns regarding the management of IH in this patient population, including the timing of repair, the risk of incarceration, anesthetic management, the frequency of bilaterality, the high incidence of undescended testes, and the technical aspects and complications associated with IH repair in the VLBW infant.

Seat-belt transection of the pararenal vena cava in a 5-year-old child: survival with caval ligation.

Blunt traumatic disruption of the inferior vena cava is associated with high mortality and is rare in children. A seat-belted 5-year-old girl sustained, in a motor vehicle accident, pararenal caval transection, right renal vein transection, laceration of the right kidney, duodenal injury, and a second lumbar vertebral fracture. Damage-control surgery consisted of inferior vena caval and right renal vein ligation and temporary abdominal wall silo closure.

Iontophoresis: a needle-free, electrical system of local anesthesia delivery for pediatric surgical office procedures.

Background/purpose: Delivery of local anesthesia for surgical office procedures for pediatric patients can be difficult. Injections are painful and often lead to patient anxiety, and topical anesthetics frequently provide incomplete anesthesia. The authors prospectively studied the efficacy of iontophoresis, a needle-free technique in which positively charged lidocaine and epinephrine molecules are drawn into the tissue by an electrical current as an anesthetic for pediatric surgical office procedures.

Continuous venovenous rewarming: results from a juvenile animal model.

Objective: To compare a standard and an experimental method of rewarming in 5-wk-old goats with induced moderate hypothermia.

Design: Hypothermia was induced in ten juvenile Nubian goats. Five goats were randomly assigned to be rewarmed using standard techniques, and five were assigned to the experimental rewarming technique of a modified continuous venovenous hemofiltration circuit.