Abstract
Administration of the anesthetic drugs, surgery and the underlying disease, can interfere with the developmental changes of the neonatal life. For this reason, it is mandatory for the pediatric anesthetist to know the pathophysiology of the neonatal age, in order to correctly apply the principles of the neonatal anesthesia. The perinatal period and the delivery provide us important details for the complete medical history, and the complete preoperative anesthetic evaluation should be focussed on the infants’ transition from the fotal to the neonatal life. Moreover, the techniques for induction and maintenance of anesthesia may vary with the infant’s size, the gestational age, medical status, and surgical procedure. Regional anesthesia is widely used for intra- and postoperative analgesia and spinal anesthesia, and it can be considered a useful alternative to general anesthesia, especially to prevent the risk of postanesthesia apnea.
Postoperative pain can be pharmacologically safely treated with opioid, paracetamol, or regional anesthesia, when handled by an experienced pediatric acute pain service.
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Disma, N., Mameli, L., Bonfiglio, R., Zanaboni, C., Tuo, P. (2018). Neonatal Anesthesia. In: Buonocore, G., Bracci, R., Weindling, M. (eds) Neonatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29489-6_176
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29489-6_176
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