Relief for Children with Orthopaedic Surgery

According to a recent press release from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, an anesthesia pouch will allow children to go home much sooner after surgery.

A small pouch which blocks pain transmission from where the surgery was done on the body as well as delivers local anesthetic agents may be the relief that children recovering from orthopaedic surgery need. This technique, which is already used in adults, has now been adapted by The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for children because it will make children feel less pain and leave the hospital much sooner.

This new technique for children was studied by the outcomes of 217 children who received the pouch between the years 2003 and 2006 for pain management after orthopaedic surgery for a procedure called continuous peripheral nerve blockade (CPNB.) One can find the findings in the recently published November 2007 issue of the journal "Anesthesia & Analgesia."

"The main advantage is that the patients can leave the hospital sooner," said Arjunan Ganesh, M.D., a pediatric anesthesiologist at The Children's Hospital and the lead author of the study. "And, you are able to ensure better pain control and to decrease use of opioids and their side effects, such as itching and nausea."

And this system is quite easily. Once getting discharged from a hospital with the anesthesia pouch which is attached to a belt worn around the waist or over the shoulder to deliver numbing medication known as local anesthetic around nerves, the patient will also be visited by a nurse at home until the pouch is ready to be removed. Following removal of the device, the patient will also receive calls from a nurse practitioner twice a day until numbness and any side effects from the pouch are gone. The punch can also be removed easily at home by the patient's parents to avoid another office visit. It is simply very convenient.

"CPNB has never been done routinely in pediatrics," adds Dr. Ganesh. "I don't know of any other institution that regularly sends children home with catheters. They may be starting to do it now, after we have shown in studies that it works. One of the main reasons for the successful launch of this program was the acceptance and interest generated by our orthopaedic surgeons and pain nurse practitioners who helped train the post anesthesia care unit and educate parents, without whom this program would not have taken off."

So all children get is an early discharge from a hospital and better pain management? That is not all. This system also offers more than 100 hours of continuous relief for children in pain and is actually much cheaper and affordable than long hospital stays and alternative treatments.

SOURCE

PRnewswire