Anaesthesia

Abstract Children and their families, especially those with complex needs and comorbidities, are increasingly cared for in specialist children’s hospitals with experienced staff members. The range and complexity of medical and surgical treatment options have expanded, exacting more nuanced and meticulous approaches to the delivery of care to children. Alongside specialist surgical and medical paediatric disciplines, paediatric anaesthesia has emerged as a recognized subspecialty requiring further training in dedicated centres. This chapter aims to provide an overview of salient topics in paediatric anaesthesia relevant to paediatric surgery. It covers preoperative assessment, anaesthesia considerations, and perioperative management, and includes discussion of topics such as fasting, premedication, analgesia, and emergence delirium. The objective is to provide practical help rather than a treatise of the underlying issues, which are well discussed in the excellent, but more comprehensive, textbook of paediatric anaesthesia.