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Perioperative intravenous lidocaine use in childrenPerioperative pain management impacts patient morbidity, quality of life, and hospitalization cost. In children, it impacts not only the child, but the whole family. Adjuncts for improved perioperative analgesia continue to be sought to minimize adverse side effects associated with opioids and for those in whom regional or neuraxial anesthesia is not suitable.
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Primum non nocere (“first do no harm”) with oxygen therapyBritta Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg AM FAHMS MD, PhD, DEAA, FANZA Chair of Paediatric anaesthesia, University of Western Australia; Consultant
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Prenatal Exposure to General Anesthesia and Childhood Behavioral DeficitExposure to surgery and anesthesia in early childhood has been found to be associated with an increased risk of behavioral deficits. While the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against prenatal exposure to anesthetic drugs, little clinical evidence exists to support this recommendation.

The Perioperative Medicine team has developed a unique chewable tablet that gives the child the sensation of having a full stomach, without compromising their fasting regime.
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Kids Voices, the perioperative experience of emergency surgery from children's perspectives: A qualitative studyThe study aimed to better understand children's emergency perioperative experience, a little researched topic. Current literature shows discrepancies between child and adult perceptions for the same healthcare experience. Acquisition of knowledge from the child's perspective can be utilized to improve perioperative care.
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Anaesthesia related mortality data at a Tertiary Pediatric Hospital in Western AustraliaAnaesthesia related mortality in paediatrics is rare. There are limited data describing paediatric anaesthesia related mortality. This study determined the anaesthesia related mortality at a Tertiary Paediatric Hospital in Western Australia.
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High-flow nasal oxygen for children's airway surgery to reduce hypoxaemic events: a randomised controlled trialTubeless upper airway surgery in children is a complex procedure in which surgeons and anaesthetists share the same operating field. These procedures are often interrupted for rescue oxygen therapy.
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Perioperative steroid prophylaxis for adrenal insufficiency, a single-centre experienceBritta Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg AM FAHMS MD, PhD, DEAA, FANZA Chair of Paediatric anaesthesia, University of Western Australia; Consultant
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Paediatric Medicinal Formulation Development: Utilising Human Taste Panels and Incorporating Their Data into Machine Learning TrainingThis review paper explores the role of human taste panels and artificial neural networks (ANNs) in taste-masking paediatric drug formulations. Given the ethical, practical, and regulatory challenges of employing children, young adults (18-40) can serve as suitable substitutes due to the similarity in their taste sensitivity. Taste panellists need not be experts in sensory evaluation so long as a reference product is used during evaluation; however, they should be screened for bitterness taste detection thresholds.
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Taste-Masked Flucloxacillin Powder Part 1: Optimisation of Fabrication Process Using a Mixture Design ApproachIt is extremely challenging to formulate age-appropriate flucloxacillin medicines for young children, because flucloxacillin sodium (FS) has a lingering, highly bitter taste, dissolves quickly in saliva, and requires multiple daily dosing at relatively large doses for treating skin infections. In this paper, we describe a promising taste-masked flucloxacillin ternary microparticle (FTM) formulation comprising FS, Eudragit EPO (EE), and palmitic acid.