To Investigate the Use of a New Syringe "Visual Pressure Control (VPC)" for Epidural Anesthesia in Children Surgery

To Investigate the Use of a New Syringe "Visual Pressure Control (VPC)" for Epidural Anesthesia in Children Surgery

Use of Visual Pressure Control (VPC) Syringes for Epidural Space Identification in Pediatric Anesthesia: a Pilot Study

Pediatric epidural anesthesia has emerged as a safe and effective regional anesthesia technique for providing intraoperative and postoperative analgesia in thoracic and abdominal surgery. The loss of resistance technique is the gold standard for the placement of the epidural. The VPC (visual pressure control) syringes developed by PAJUNK enable direct visualization of the introduction of the needle into the epidural space.

This trial is a non blinded, pilot study. A minimum of 15 children between the ages of 0 and 16 who require surgery that may benefit from epidural anesthesia will be enrolled. The number of attempts, the complications (dural and vascular punctures, neurological complications) and the degree of satisfaction of the operator measured by a 7-point likert scale will be studied as secondary objectives.

Abdominal Hernia, Abdominal Wall Defect, Abdominal Neoplasm, Urogenital Disease, Urologic Neoplasms, Thoracic Diseases, Lung Diseases

The primary objective will be successful detection of the epidural space by visualization of dural displacement upon injection of local anesthetic with real-time ultrasound and/or absence of pain at the incision established by the absence of more than 10% elevation in heart rate.

study of the operator's satisfaction by a seven-point rating scale where 1 is extremely dissatisfied and 7 is extremely satisfied

Inclusion Criteria: children aged from 0 to 16y surgical procedure that can benefit from a lumbar or low thoracic epidural anesthesia Exclusion Criteria: parental refusal allergy to local anesthetics coagulation disorders spine abnormalities