The European society of regional anesthesia and pain therapy and the American society of regional anesthesia and pain medicine joint committee practice advisory on controversial topics in pediatric regional anesthesia i and II: What do they tell us?

Purpose of review To summarize the two recent sets of European and American Societies of Regional Anesthesia (ESRA-ASRA) Practice Advisory Guidelines for the performance of pediatric regional anesthesia (PRA). Recent findings Owing to the still ongoing debate regarding crucial issues concerning the effective and safe conduct of PRA and because of the lack of any generally accepted guidelines regarding PRA the (ESRA-ASRA) have addressed these in two topical publications. Summary Following an extensive literature search and an evidence-based approach the ESRA-ASRA task force have now provided a practice advisory on the following hot topics in PRA: the safety and appropriateness of placing block during general anesthesia or deep sedation, the use of test dosing, whether to use air or saline when performing loss-of-resistance, the risk of masking an acute compartment syndrome by use of PRA, dosing of local anesthetics for neuroaxial nerve blocks as well as peripheral nerve blocks, and finally the use of various drugs as adjuncts to local anesthetics.