Regional anesthesia usage in children

Abstract

Regional anesthesia eliminates the intraoperative pain, suppresses the surgical stress response, decreases the requirement of anesthetics and opioids, and provides stable hemodynamics. Regarding the RA techniques and choosing the local anesthetics can continue to eliminate postoperative pain. As a result, the overall number and variety of nerve blocks being used in children increase and decrease the procedural complications and adverse events. While neuraxial block is the most common block performed in infants and toddlers, the introduction of the ultrasound technique and better safety profile has advanced the use of peripheral nerve blocks. Due to infant-specific pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of local anesthetics the small children have a greater risk of the local anesthetic’s systemic toxicity. Therefore, the performer must have a high level of expertise in regional anesthesia, can prevent and manage local anesthetic systemic toxicity.