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The clinical consequences of an antibiotic allergy label are detrimental, impacting health care delivery and patient outcomes. We assessed hospital inpatients with intent to offer free antibiotic allergy labeling assessment within a randomized controlled trial. We sought to determine the feasibility of establishing an adult antibiotic allergy delabeling service in a Western Australian tertiary public hospital.  

Sometimes, there is an urgent need to administer inhaled adrenaline to children, awake, sedated or anaesthetised to treat asthma, bronchospasm, croup, and suspected laryngeal/pharyngeal oedema or stridor, which can become severe or even life-threatening. To better inform emergency dosing and administration guidelines, we aimed to quantify the amount of adrenaline delivered for inhalation from a nebuliser, in a simulated experimental delivery set-up for spontaneously breathing children and adults, either via an anaesthetic face mask, a Laryngeal Mask Airway or an Endotracheal tube.

Preoperative anxiety is common in children. It can contribute to negative experiences with anesthetic induction and may cause adverse physiological and psychological effects. Virtual reality (VR) and electronic tablet devices are 2 audiovisual distraction tools that may help to reduce anxiety and enhance the preoperative experience. This study aimed to compare the use of an immersive 3-dimensional (3D) VR to 2-dimensional (2D) video on anxiety in children during induction of general anesthesia.

Chronic childhood constipation is a common problem that severely impacts quality of life. Recently, the efficacy of intrasphincteric botulinum toxin (botox) injection in breaking the cycle of constipation has been demonstrated. The current study aims to investigate response rate to treatment, symptom and examination finding associations, and identify associations between patient characteristics and outcome.

Pain is a common experience associated with healthcare for children, who often recall it as the worst part of hospitalisation. Several factors make assessment of pain more challenging in children. Families have previously identified the development of improved tools to assess pain in children as a key priority. We therefore sough to investigate the nature of this experience from the perspective of children and their parents to inform the development of such tools.

Monitoring children's recovery postoperatively is important for routine care, research, and quality improvement. Although telephone follow-up is common, it is also time-consuming and intrusive for families. Using SMS messaging to communicate with families regarding their child's recovery has the potential to address these concerns. While a previous survey at our institution indicated that parents were willing to communicate with the hospital by SMS, data on response rates for SMS-based postoperative data collection is limited, particularly in pediatric populations.

Pediatric anesthesiology has been greatly impacted by COVID-19 in the delivery of care to patients and to the individual providers. With this study, we sought to survey pediatric centers and highlight the variations in care related to perioperative medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the availability of protective equipment, the practice of pediatric anesthesia, and economic impact.

A previous cohort of adenotonsillectomy patients at our institution demonstrated moderate-severe post-tonsillectomy pain scores lasting a median (range) duration of 6 (0-23) days and postdischarge nausea and vomiting affecting 8% of children on day 1 following surgery. In this subsequent cohort, we evaluate the impact of changes to our discharge medication and parental education on post-tonsillectomy pain and recovery profile.

Hypoactive delirium is present when an awake child is unaware of his or her surroundings, is unable to focus attention, and appears quiet and withdrawn. This condition has been well-described in the intensive care setting but has not been extensively studied in the immediate post-anesthetic period. The aim was to determine if hypoactive emergence delirium occurs in the recovery unit of a pediatric hospital, and if so, what proportion of emergence delirium is hypoactive in nature.

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced challenges to everyone in society but particularly so to every aspect of medical practice. It is bewildering how quickly the profession has had to respond to rapidly changing clinical landscape. Our well-established methods involve collecting and analyzing data to generate an evidence base which is then disseminated and implemented into routine clinical practice.