We continue to see new developments in anesthesia. Still, there are many things that seem “new,” but in reality are tried and true discoveries from the past. This edition of the Monitor is focused on Non-operating room anesthesia (NORA). To many, NORA may seem like a recent development. To others, NORA is a recently coined acronym to describe activities that have been going on for some time.
Dr. Belani discusses “Pediatric Non-operating Room Anesthesia (NORA) – The Essentials” in this issue. In this article, Dr. Belani mentions caring for pediatric patients who are receiving radiation therapy. Even back in the 1980s, when my training took place, we were doing NORA on pediatric patients receiving radiation therapy. Back then, we tended to use total intravenous anesthesia with sodium thiopental rather than an inhalational agent-based anesthetic. This technique was chosen as there was evidence back then that these patients maintained a better...
