Induction of Anesthesia for Children: Should We Recommend the Needle or the Mask?

Induction of Anesthesia for Children: Should We Recommend the Needle or the Mask?

PREOPERATIVE discussions in pediatric anesthesia often include the anesthesiologist saying: “there are two ways to induce anesthesia in your child: with anesthetic gas through a mask, or giving an anesthetic drug through an intravenous line.”

Not infrequently the parent will respond, “which is best?” Do we have the evidence to answer this simple question?

In this issue, Ramgolam et al. report findings from a randomized controlled trial comparing intravenous and inhalational induction in children that are deemed to be at risk of developing perioperative respiratory complications.