Tetracaine Hydrochloride

Peripheral venous cannulation (insertion of a drip line into a vein) is a fundamental component of anaesthesia for both children and adults alike. Discomfort caused by needle insertion is a common worry for children but one simple intervention that may be delivered prior to a needle insertion procedure, is the application of topical analgesia (numbing skin cream). Several creams are now available and have been found to be effective in several trials of awake children. Yet the value of these creams for children receiving an inhalational induction of anaesthesia (gas to go off to sleep before needle insertion) remains uncertain.
The aims of this study are to determine whether cream application prior to receiving gas to go off to sleep has any beneficial effects (outcomes) for children, including reduction of movement, improved needle success rates and reduced time required for needle insertion procedures. How frequently skin effects after application of the creams occur (swelling, redness, itchiness) will also be assessed.
This study will be performed as a retrospective observational study (a study which looks back in time, identifies groups of exposed (cream applied) or non-exposed (no cream applied) children and follows them over a period of time to see how their exposures affect their outcomes). Using a total population (purposive) sampling technique, 500 children from 1 month to 18 years of age undergoing elective (planned) or urgent (emergency) inhalational induction of anaesthesia (gas to go off to sleep) at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust over a six month study period (August 2020 to January 2021) will be incorporated into a completely anonymised research dataset and analysed to determine whether topical analgesia (skin numbing cream) application prior to inhalational induction (gas to go off to sleep) may offer any beneficial effects for paediatric patients.

The demand for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in pediatric patients is increasing due to its use in medical diagnosis and surveillance. Pediatric patients often require general anesthesia (GA) for MRI due to the need for prolonged immobility during the scanning process to obtain high quality images. Two widely used anesthetic techniques for pediatric MRIs are volatile-based anesthesia using sevoflurane and total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) using propofol. Concerns have been raised regarding the potential neurotoxic effects of anesthetics on the developing brain. Within the animal literature, there is emerging evidence to suggest that both sevoflurane and propofol may cause inflammation, impacting brain cell survival and connections, thereby contributing to possible cognitive dysfunction. However, given the challenges in extrapolating the animal data to humans, and the relatively limited human cohort studies examining the long-term effects of anesthesia exposure, there is inadequate information available to make informed clinical decisions regarding the choice of optimal anesthetic agents for MRI in children. Therefore, this study will uniquely examine the mechanisms of two widely used anesthetics and their short and long-term impact on developmental outcomes in healthy children.