BACKGROUND: Regional anesthesia (RA) is a major component of multimodal perioperative analgesia in children. Despite proven benefits, pediatric RA practice shows marked inter-institutional and international variability, with global practice patterns remaining largely underreported. This study aimed to characterize current RA practices in a pediatric anesthesia department of a French tertiary university hospital. METHODS: This retrospective observational study of prospectively collected data over one year included all children aged 0-18 years receiving at least one RA procedure. The data analyzed comprised demographics, surgical characteristics, RA techniques, guidance methods, and pharmacologic agents. Each RA procedure was considered an independent event, and patients were stratified into five age groups. RESULTS: Over the study period, 907 patients (6.0 1.0; 12.0 years) underwent 1,073 RA procedures: 894 peripheral blocks (83%) and 179 neuraxial blocks (17%). Peripheral blocks predominated in children >6 months (90%), while 59% of neuraxial RA were in infants 60% of cases. CONCLUSIONS: This single-center cohort reports one year of pediatric RA practice, characterized by high RA implementation rates. While ultrasound guidance was standard for peripheral blocks, pre-puncture scanning remains infrequently used for neuraxial techniques, highlighting a potential margin for improvement based on current practice. Results highlight selective neuraxial strategies in vulnerable infants and routine adjuvant use to optimize postoperative analgesia. Findings confirm RA feasibility in daily pediatric anesthesia and support multicenter studies evaluating inter-institutional variability and outcomes impact.
Sola et al. (2026) studied this question.