At this year’s World Congress of Anaesthesiologists (WCA) in Hong Kong (Aug. 28 — Sept. 2), a new research have shown that allowing children to use iPads to distract them before surgery requiring general anaesthesia is as effective at lowering their anxiety as conventional sedatives.
Unbelievable right? Well, the new study was conducted by Dr Dominique Chassard, EPICIME, Hopital Mere Enfant, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Bron, France, and colleagues.
Dr Chassard concludes:
“Our study showed that child and parental anxiety before anaesthesia are equally blunted by midazolam or use of the iPad. However, the quality of induction of anaesthesia, as well as parental satisfaction, were judged better in the iPad group. Use of iPads or other tablet devices is a non-pharmacologic tool which can reduce perioperative stress without any sedative effect in paediatric ambulatory surgery.”
Source: ScienceDaily
