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SPA Newsletter

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President's Message

I feel obliged to begin this message with my thanks - to Mark Rockoff, Katsuyuki Miyasaka and all the staff at Ruggles for their incredible efforts and dedication to the October meeting.

The first international joint meeting of the SPA and Japanese SPA was a huge success. The meeting speakers were excellent and the translators did an amazing job of simultaneous translation. My mind boggles at the thought of translating the science presented as the speaker presented. Over 500 anesthesiologists attended, with some 60 Japanese members who traveled great distances from Japan. For the first time at this meeting, posters were displayed including both scientific topics and 40 describing major pediatric anesthesia programs/hospitals in North America and Japan. The afternoon session finished with an amazing lecture on the Nobel Prize and early and recent award recipients in medicine/physiology by Dr. Sten Lindahl, who recently chaired the Nobel Committee in Medicine/Physiology. It was the perfect endnote to our international meeting. The evening reception at the Museum of Modern Art was also a rousing success with more than 600 attendees. We had great food and company (as we always do), but also were able to view the Chagall exhibit there. Dr. Miyasaka arranged a wonderful concert during the evening given by a Russian cellist and Italian pianist. There was something to please every sense! The success of this meeting and all the work many did to increase funding support means that the expenses for the meeting will not be causing substantial depletion of reserves. My thanks also go to our corporate sponsors who were so generous. So, scientifically, socially and fiscally, we all won.

The Winter Meeting program, which will take place in Phoenix, has been finalized by Lynne Maxwell and the Education Committee. The meeting will begin with a session on patient safety and responses to unanticipated events, including managing personal, legal and sentinel event processes. The afternoon sessions will be clinical, with anesthesia and pediatric diseases being followed by Jeopardy. Saturday morning will start with PBLDs, then the SPA and AAP Anesthesia and Pain Management awards and oral abstract presentations and the AAP Advocacy lecture followed by walk-around poster discussions. Workshops and refresher courses will be presented with new topics and return of those well received at past meetings. The final morning will include a panel presentation on international medical services, talks on anesthetics as neuroprotectants or neurotoxins, and the morning will end with a presentation on the pediatric peri-operative experience: should hospitals have performance based credentialing (the California experience). Dr. Maxwell has also arranged a PALS workshop for the Thursday preceding the meeting for a limited number of registrants, which, in combination with some of the meeting lectures, will allow PALS certification. So, mark your calendars now for March 4-7, 2004. We're counting on Arizona weather to be sunny and warm.

I want to invite those members new to SPA, who have an interest, to participate in one of the Committees. Participation on committees is the best way to become active in the organization. Most of the Board of Directors are selected by the Nominating Committee based on their active participation. The committee structure was set up in 1987 to limit membership to a maximum of 6 years (three 2 year terms) in order to encourage "new blood". There are many committees, so one should fall in an interest area of yours: communications, education, finance, membership, research, governmental affairs, bylaws, and ad-hoc international education and service. Some are large and some have few members but all welcome new or junior recruits. Send an e-mail to the SPA office or to me and I'll put you in touch with the committee chair.

Finally, I want to let the membership know what SPA is planning to help those anesthesiologists who have time-limited certification (graduates after 2000) in Anesthesiology. The Board believes it is our responsibility to develop education materials that will be useful in completing pediatric portions of the portfolio for Life-long Learning that the ABA is developing. This will constitute a major undertaking, but we feel it is a responsibility we should and will fulfill. I'll update you as this goes forward.

My best wishes for a healthy winter season to you all.

Anne M. Lynn, MD
SPA President

Table of Contents

• President's Message
• Editor's Corner
• Joint Meeting of SPA and JSPA
• Out and About the ASA
  • Pediatric Clinical Forum at ASA
  • Pediatric Panel: Pediatric Pain Management
  • Controversies in Malignant Hyperthermia, Cases from the MH Hotline
  • American Academy of Pediatrics Secion on Anesthesiology Breakfast Panel
  • Tuesday Morning general Pediatric Anesthesia Poster Discussions and Poster Sessions of General Pediatric and Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia
• American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Anesthesia and Pain Medicine Update
• Fellows Corner
  • Non-ACGME Approved Fellowship Training Programs for Pediatric Anesthesia
• WEB ONLY
  • SPA Governmental Affairs Committee Report
  • Literature Review: Hyperkalemia and Pyloric Stenosis
  • Literature Review: Early Exposure to Common Anesthetic Agents Causes Widespread Neurodegeneration in the Developing Rat Brain and Persistent Learning Deficits
  • Laryngeal mask insertion in children: a rational approach
  • Remifentanil Infusion for Cleft Palate Surgery in Young Infants
  • Tuesday Morning General Pediatric Anesthesia Poster Discussions and Poster Sessions of General Pediatric and Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesia

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