Strategy to Manage Pediatric Patients: the Family and the Child

Abstract

An important responsibility of physicians who care for children is the elimination of anxiety and suffering whenever possible, especially during the preoperative period. It is known that preoperative anxiety in children is associated with adverse postoperative outcomes (i.e. increased incidence of emergence delirium, increased pain) and so an adequate preparation programme should be applied routinely. The strategy to manage the pediatric patient should include the parents to avoid increasing the parents’ anxiety and concomitantly the child’s anxiety.