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Great minds come together at Wal-yan Scientific Retreat

Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre team members and special guests travelled to Wadjemup (Rottnest) on 27 and 28 October to spend an intensive two days together learning about, and providing input into, the broad range of research projects underway within the Centre.

Pediatric airway management

Children are at risk of severe hypoxemia in the perioperative period owing to their unique anatomy and physiology. Safe and effective airway management strategies are therefore key to the practice of pediatric anesthesia. The goal of this review is to highlight recent publications (2019-2021) aimed to advance pediatric airway safety and to highlight a proposed simple, pediatric-specific, universal framework to guide clinical practice.

Carbon dioxide monitoring in children—A narrative review of physiology, value, and pitfalls in clinical practice

Continuous capnography has been recognised as an essential monitoring device in all anesthetized patients, despite which airway device is in use, regardless of their location, as a measure to improve patient safety. Capnography is the non-invasive measurement of a sample of the exhaled carbon dioxide which has multiple clinical uses including as a method to confirm placement of a tracheal tube and/or to assess ventilation, perfusion and metabolism.

300th participant recruited to crucial respiratory research program

A research program, which enables over 25 important respiratory research studies to be undertaken, celebrated the recruitment of its 300th participant on 14 December 2022.

Prenatal Exposure to General Anesthesia and Childhood Behavioral Deficit

Exposure 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. This study evaluates the association between prenatal exposure to general anesthesia due to maternal procedures during pregnancy and neuropsychological and behavioral outcome scores at age 10.

Gender Balance in Anesthesiology: Is a Change of Societal Mindset Needed?

With great interest, we are following the discussion on Speaker Gender Representation and Trends in Authorship. While it is indeed very popular and important to look at speaker representation, authorship, or board membership by gender, the underlying reasons for the unequal gender representation are not as easy to determine. Counting numbers on panels or boards may also not add up to real representation.

Perioperative pediatric tonsillectomy analgesia: A single-center review of practice and cost-effectiveness analysis

Tonsillectomy is one of the most common pediatric surgeries and results in considerable postoperative pain. Insufficiently managed pain is costly, risks physiological and psychological consequences with multi-modal analgesia widely recommended to minimize opioid-based agents. We determined adherence to multi-modal analgesia guidelines and assessed cost-effectiveness. We undertook a cross-sectional cohort study at a tertiary pediatric institution in Perth, Western Australia, retrospectively identifying selected patients undergoing tonsillectomy over two discrete periods of 6-week duration.

Seven innovative lung health research projects supported by Wal-yan Centre funding

Seven innovative lung health research projects have received funding support as the 2023 Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre Strategic Inspiration Projects.

The role of fit testing N95/FFP2/FFP3 masks: a narrative review

For healthcare workers performing aerosol-generating procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic, well fitted filtering facepiece respirators, for example, N95/FFP2 or N99/FFP3 masks, are recommended as part of personal protective equipment. In this review, we evaluate the role of fit checking and fit testing of respirators, in addition to airborne protection provided by respirators. Filtering facepiece respirators are made of material with sufficient high filter capacity to protect against airborne respiratory viruses.

Assessment of different techniques for the administration of inhaled salbutamol in children breathing spontaneously via tracheal tubes, supraglottic airway devices, and

Perioperative respiratory adverse events account for a third of all perioperative cardiac arrests, with bronchospasm and laryngospasm being most common. Standard treatment for bronchospasm is administration of inhaled salbutamol, via pressurized metered dose inhaler. There is little evidence on the best method of attaching the pressurized metered dose inhaler to the artificial airway during general anesthesia. The aim of this study is to investigate the best method to deliver aerosolized salbutamol via pressurized metered dose inhaler to the lungs of an anesthetized child.

Wal-yan researchers welcomed at scientific meeting in New Zealand

More than 14 researchers from the Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre will be welcomed as presenters and facilitators at The Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and The Australia and New Zealand Society of Respiratory Science (TSANZSRS) Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) this weekend.

Assessment of different techniques for the administration of inhaled salbutamol in children breathing spontaneously via tracheal tubes, supraglottic airway devices, and tracheostomies

Perioperative respiratory adverse events account for a third of all perioperative cardiac arrests, with bronchospasm and laryngospasm being most common. Standard treatment for bronchospasm is administration of inhaled salbutamol, via pressurized metered dose inhaler. There is little evidence on the best method of attaching the pressurized metered dose inhaler to the artificial airway during general anesthesia. The aim of this study is to investigate the best method to deliver aerosolized salbutamol via pressurized metered dose inhaler to the lungs of an anesthetized child.

Anaesthesia, pain and recovery profiles in children following dental extractions

The aim of this prospective cohort study was to describe the anaesthetic practices, rates of postoperative pain and the recovery trajectory of children having urgent dental extractions at our institution.

What’s inside the box? Or shall we think outside the box?

With the deadly and highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, there is global concern about the danger of contaminating healthcare workers (HCW), particularly during airway management of infected patients.