Dermatosurgery using subcutaneous infusion anesthesia with prilocaine and ropivacaine in children.

Pediatric surgical procedures under local anesthesia have been limited by the pain of injections and, because of low body weight, rapidly reached maximum doses. In subcutaneous infusion anesthesia (SIA) highly diluted local anesthetics are administered by flow- and volume-controlled infusion pumps. This article presents a retrospective review of the use of SIA in children undergoing excision of dermatologic problem lesions. A total of 354 surgical procedures, predominantly excisions of nevi in 271 children (3 months-16 years) were performed in 1999: 67 children were operated on under general anesthesia and 204 children with local anesthesia. For local anesthesia we used SIA with diluted prilocaine and ropivacaine (equivalent mixtures of 0.3%, 0.15%, 0.08%). The 67 children operated on under general anesthesia were younger (mean age 3.05 +/- 2.93 years, median age 2.00 years) than the 204 children who had surgery with SIA (mean age 9.00 +/- 4.2 years, median age 9.00 years). The sizes of excisions under general anesthesia were larger (maximum 1060 cm2, mean 76 +/- 225 cm2, median 7 cm2) than those under SIA (maximum 628 cm2, mean 22 +/- 100 cm2, median 3 cm2). No side effects of local anesthesia were observed in these pediatric procedures. The additional use of ropivacaine resulted in prolonged postoperative analgesia. SIA in children is a well-accepted, safe anesthesia that in some cases offers an alternative to general anesthesia.