Speakers
Dr. Laszlo VUTSKITS
Head of Pediatric Anesthesia
University Hopsital of Geneva
Switzerland
Dr. Vutskits received his medical degree from the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest Hungary. He then completed a PhD in the field of developmental neurobiology at the University of Geneva Medical School followed by an anesthesiology residency at the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Intensive Care at the University Hospitals of Geneva. After his residency training, he turned toward a specialization in pediatric anesthesia. His principal clinical interest is on the effects of the perioperative period on postoperative behavioural and cognitive outcome in children. Dr. Vutskits currently serves as the Head of Pediatric Anesthesia at the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Intensive Care at the University Hospital of Geneva. He also acts as the President of the European Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology. He is an Editor of Anesthesiology and a Section Editor of Pediatric Anesthesia.
One major role of anesthesia management is to protect the organism from the stress of the perioperative period. In this presentation, I will focus on the central nervous system and aim to provide the participants with the current state of knowledge on perioperative neuroprotection in pediatric populations. Since anesthetic drugs decrease cerebral metabolic rate and modulate receptor signaling pathways implicated in molecular cascades underlying neurological injury, there is a biological rational for “anesthetic neuroprotection”. In theory, “anesthetic neuroprotection” could allow us to either anticipate neurological complications associated with high-risk patients / surgeries or decrease the consequences of neurological disasters occurring prior to or during the perioperative period. Despite these promises, the clinical relevance of neuroprotection is continuously questioned. One challenge to investigate/measure neurotoxicity is the clinically meaningful appropriate outcome measure that still needs to be identified. A second difficulty concerns clinical approaches to neuromonitoring. Indeed, there are several neuromonitoring modalities available, but it remains so far undetermined whether the perioperative application of these monitors improve clinical outcome. I’ll finish my presentation by highlighting current approaches to brain monitoring alongside providing some insights into potential future research directions in this domain.
