Paediatric Perioperative Life Support (PPLS) 2023 Hospital Tunku Azizah, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
By Dr Phang Ye Yun
The Malaysian Society of Paediatric Anesthesiologists (MSPA) together with the Anaesthesiology Department of Hospital Tunku Azizah (HTA), Kuala Lumpur has successfully organised Paediatric Perioperative Life Support (PPLS) workshop on 27th May 2023. PPLS is an initiative of Asian Society of Paediatric Anaesthesiologists (ASPA), and is organised in Malaysia by the Malaysian Society of Paediatric Anaesthesiologists (MSPA) at least twice a year since 2018 (was withheld in 2021 during the COVID-19 phase). The objective of PPLS workshop is to assist anaesthetists or trainees who manage children undergoing surgery, to anticipate, to prevent and to manage perioperative events that may lead to cardiac arrest; and thus to reduce perioperative risks of morbidity and mortality in paediatric anaesthesia.
This workshop was held in the Seminar rooms 1 to 6 of Post Graduate Medical Centre and Continuous Medical Education at level 3 of HTA and was opened to anaesthetic specialists, trainees, and medical officers from hospitals of Universities and the Ministry of Health especially in Klang Valley. We received enthusiastic 30 participants and we had a total of 12 paediatric anaesthesiologists (PPLS trainers) from the Universities, the Ministry of Health and the Private Hospitals who were briefed the day before to ensure the consistency in content and standard in delivery.
The MSPA faculties and facilitators on this workshop were consisted of:
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- Prof. Dr. Felicia Lim (Chairman of ASPA PPLS Workshop Malaysia)
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- Usha Nair (Assistant Chairman of ASPA PPLS Workshop Malaysia)
- Dr. Intan Zarina Fakir Mohamed (Organising Chairman of PPLS Hospital Tunku Azizah)
- Dr. Foo Sze Yuen
- Dr. Hamidah Ismail
- Prof. Dr. Lucy Chan
- Dr. Mohd Lutfi Nijar
- Dr. Phang Ye Yun
- Associate Professor Dr Rufinah Teo
- Shariffah Raguan Syed Othman
- Sivaraj Chandran
- Dr Ujdora Goh
- Yoga Bhavani A/P M. Shanmuganathan
This one full day workshop which took place from 8 am to 5: 30 pm in the evening, comprised of 6 lectures, 4 skills stations and 6 interactive case discussions along with the breaking bad news role play. The workshop covered essential components of paediatric anaesthesia, including identification and management of:
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- child at risk such as hypovolemic child from trauma and dehydration or septic child
- hypoxic cardiac arrest
- child with hyper-reactive airway, i.e. laryngospasm or bronchospasm,
- child at risk of airway obstruction, e.g. airway anomalies
- common and uncommon causes of perioperative cardiac arrest, e.g. local anaesthetic toxicity, arrhythmias
PPLS workshop covered:
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- effective management of perioperative crisis
- effective resuscitation
- management of shockable rhythms: drugs, cardioversion and defibrillation
- teamwork during crisis management
- communication
- breaking bad news
The workshop was conducted successfully with the great enthusiasm and active participation of both the trainers and the trainees. The participants were energetic and enthusiastic especially during the role playing of breaking bad news, interactive case discussions and skills stations. The participants gave positive feedback that the course was very precise, comprehensive and informative, loaded with the essential knowledge in paediatric anaesthesia. The participants strongly agreed that PPLS is useful for their clinical practice and would recommend the workshop for medical staffs who involved in perioperative care of children. The organising committee would like to extend gratitude to all the facilitators especially those who had travelled from other states to conduct this workshop and for making this workshop a huge success. We hope to conduct this type of workshop again in the future also with your support.
