Our research and innovation
Active clinical investigations are being carried out in the various clinical and laboratory services of the Perioperative Anesthesia Research.
The faculty of the Perioperative anesthesia research pursues a wide variety of research interests, including:
- the role of bispectral index in the pediatric patient
- the clinical pharmacology of local anesthetics in infants and children
- the prevention of post-operative nausea and vomiting
- novel anesthetic techniques for microlaryngeal surgery
- randomized controlled trials to examine the management of acute lung injury in critically ill children
- the cardiovascular effects of sevoflurane in children performed using noninvasive echocardiographic indices of cardiac function
- the role of local anesthetics applied directly to the skin for analgesia for venipuncture
- the role of new drugs in decreasing nausea and vomiting
- the efficacy of ketorolac for pain relief in outpatient procedures
- randomized controlled trials to examine the management of acute lung injury in critically ill children
- evaluation of children who have sustained orthopedic trauma and the incidence of undiagnoses concussion
The Neuroanesthesia and Neurosurgical research programs center on:
- intraoperative EEG monitoring of children undergoing pial synangiosis
- the role of soluble adhesion molecules in children with moyamoya syndrome
- coagulation defects in patients undergoing craniotomies
- adhesion molecules and cerebral ischemia
- the role of chemokines in the evolution of stroke injury
- toxicity of NMDA-blocking agents in the developing brain
- use of transcranial Doppler and other noninvasive techniques to better understand the effects of anesthetics on cerebral function
Laboratory-based, NIH-supported areas of inquiry in the Perioperative Anesthesia research include:
- exploring the potential role of specific monoclonal antibodies in attenuating these types of injury in infants. Mice with genetic "knockouts" of genes coding for various adhesion molecules are produced at the medical school and tested in a variety of ischemia/reperfusion tissue damage models to explore the role of these genes.
- exploration of cell volume regulation in the brain and the role of cell volume disturbances in brain injury of various types.
Clinical trials at Boston Children’s Hospital
To find a Boston Children’s Hospital clinical trial, visit clinicaltrials.gov and search for “Boston Children’s Hospital” and your child’s condition.