The Lowdown

What is this thing?

This is a place built by people who love paediatric anaesthesia with a little bit of our spare time.

And we hope it’s a place for anyone with an interest in paediatric anaesthesia. 

Whatever type of paediatric anaesthetist you are, there is something for you here. If you are just starting out there are some basics. If you came here with decades of experience there will be new things that challenge you. 

There will be the latest evidence, but just as importantly we will try to share the many different ways great clinicians turn evidence into brilliant patient care in the real world. Often that’s the sort of thing you only learn in a corridor conversation. But you’ll find that here. 

Because great anaesthesia care is not just about reading the literature. We want to add the art to the science. That includes the tips and tricks that clinicians use every day that you do not usually find written down.

The most important bit is that we hope to share the joy and wonder that makes us love what we do. 


Introducing the Team

Cautionary Notes

Any website like this relies on commitments from us that we will make the content the best we possibly. But it also requires your understanding that anything written or shared does not express the full extent of a contributor’s clinical practice. While those adding content here will sometimes point to practice at their institution, this should not be taken as a complete account of every part of what happens at the institution for which they work. It is also not official guidance from that institution that should be adopted without question. Everyone works in a system with particular realities that count at their place. It is up to the reader to take the elements described here that are useful and apply them within the context of the place that they work. That way you can come up with your best local solution.

This means that nothing on here counts as direct medical advice. It just can’t. 


The Big Principles

Now that we’re past that bit, we also want to make some commitments as to how we’ll go about things on this site. These are not idle commitments. We put them here so you can help by holding all of us to account. 

So we will:

  • Always endeavour to provide the best evidence-based content we can. This is how we make sure we’re providing the absolute best for our patients and that we are helping you to do the same. 

  • Acknowledge that medicine is rarely black and white. We will acknowledge all the grey and share any uncertainty we might have. 

  • Always try to acknowledge the original research or work on which any content is based. This is partly to help you find the good stuff, partly to be transparent about what we do, and very much so we can acknowledge the amazing efforts of colleagues driving paediatric anaesthesia forwards. 

  • Seek opportunities to share great stuff from others in the conversation about paediatric anaesthesia. 

Oh, and we won’t be putting advertisements or endorsements on the site. Because blergh.

Helping Us Out

Did you get all the way to the bottom of this page? Maybe that means you are wondering if there are ways you can chip in and help us make this all happen. Who can say? Wait, you can.

Actually we should say up front that we really do not have any expectations of you. We just hope the content is useful.

However, just in case you’re looking for a way to pitch in so we can keep this going, here’s a list of things that help:

  • Look at everything on here.

  • Tell people you know about things that are on here. Sharing the work widely really counts.

  • Go and read the original sources we point to. It’s great for them but also it means that if you have a slightly different take on it or uncover some other gem you can come back and tell us. That would be brilliant. 

  • Be part of the conversation. We would love to hear from you about your experience, your thoughts on all things paediatric anaesthesia and any ideas you have for the site. It all helps us get better. You can do this by commenting on any of the Topical Anaesthesia posts, or providing feedback. 

  • Chip in with funds. This is not a big deal. We’ll just keep putting stuff up. However, hosting the site incurs a few small costs and it’s a bit of a labour of love. If you feel moved to chip in to help with those costs you can drop by our Patreon. Any funds from there will be used to cover the costs of this site. And, noting that we all donate our time to get it done and those costs aren’t massive, we plan to donate any excess funds to an organisation who provide paediatric care in some pretty challenging settings - Médecins Sans Frontières. (And we’ll report back when we do.)