SPA-AAP Pediatric Anesthesiology 2023 Meeting

March 31 – April 2, 2023 | Emma Huebner, MD

The Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (DAPM) at UCLA had a strong presence at this year’s Society for Pediatric Anesthesia and American Academy of Pediatrics Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, in late March 2023.  

CA-2 resident physician Jessica Leung, MD, presented a case report entitled, “It’s ‘Knot’ Budging - Case of Self-Knotting Manometry Catheter and its Removal.” Her collaborators were Michael Van Tienderen, DO, pediatric anesthesiology fellow physician at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA), and Neha S. Patel, MD, Director of Quality Improvement for Anesthesiology and Assistant Professor at CHLA, Keck School of Medicine of USC. Dr. Leung described a two-year-old patient who had a manometry catheter placed following sigmoidectomy and ileostomy. The patient presented in the postoperative period with emesis, drooling, and hypoxia, and the catheter was found to be knotted proximally in the hypopharynx. It was removed successfully from the nose under general anesthesia.  

Daniel Salazar, MD, MS, pediatric anesthesiology fellow physician, presented a study investigating analgesia optimization for pectus excavatum repair. His results showed superior postoperative analgesia with cryoablation and IV methadone compared to thoracic epidural alone. Intraoperative administration of IV methadone provided excellent analgesic coverage to bridge the time until cryoablation took full effect; average opioid consumption in patients receiving cryoablation was significantly lower than those who received a thoracic epidural for postoperative analgesia. Dr. Salazar also presented his poster at the Society for Pain Practice Management Conference. DAPM faculty members Wendy Ren, MD, Clinical Professor, and Lisa Lee, MD, Assistant Professor-in-Residence, served as mentors for his project. 

Shatira Wilson, MD, pediatric anesthesiology fellow physician, presented her findings on the effect of air pollution on perioperative respiratory adverse events. The project was conducted in collaboration with Jenny Huang, MS4, who will begin her anesthesiology residency this year. Dr. Wilson also presented their work at the International Anesthesia Research Society meeting in Denver, Colorado. Her results interestingly did not find a correlation between healthier air conditions and lower perioperative respiratory adverse events. However, she and her colleagues concluded that it would still be beneficial to take air quality index (AQI) into consideration when performing anesthesia on children with reactive airway disease, as prior studies have demonstrated that unhealthy air increases the risk of perioperative respiratory adverse events. Dr. Wilson, like Dr. Salazar, was also mentored by DAPM faculty members Dr. Ren and Dr. Lee. 

In addition to providing mentorship for her fellows, Dr. Lisa Lee also led a workshop at SPA entitled "‘I want to do research’: Practical Approaches to Getting your First Clinical Research Project Off the Ground and into a Journal.” Her collaborators included Sydney Brown, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan, and Jonathan Tan, MD, MPH, MBI, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at CHLA, Keck School of Medicine at USC.  

Despite a packed conference schedule, attendees from UCLA found time to explore the city of Austin. They ate famous Texas barbecue at the restaurants Cooper’s and III Forks. They explored rooftop views at Zanzibar and the JW Marriott. They even attempted bat watching but unfortunately did not see any bats. DAPM faculty and trainees enjoyed a couple of days away from Los Angeles, spending time with each other outside of the hospital while learning about cutting-edge research within the field of pediatric anesthesiology.