Providing anesthesia, intensive care, and pain management services for neonates and children can at times be a challenge for even the most experienced pediatric clinicians. It is helpful to have a compact, reader-friendly guide such as Basics: Anesthesia, Intensive Care, and Pain in Neonates and Children for tips on technical aspects of regional anesthesia procedures as well as general advice on interacting with anxious children and their parents.
In the preface, editor Marinella Astuto notes that the goal was to “produce a book that provides a basic approach to anesthesia, perioperative medicine, intensive care, and pain management in pediatric patients.” The chapter authors have succinctly summarized essential topics and address many common questions encountered by anyone involved in the perioperative treatment of children. The easily portable, soft-bound text is the product of a 3-day master class in pediatric anesthesia, intensive care, and pain held in September 2007 as a collaborative effort between the University of Catania School of Medicine in Sicily and McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is presented in 3 parts and 19 chapters and incorporates the contributions of 25 authors from Italy, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. A foreword is presented by Antonio Gullo of the University of Catania.