[Paediatric anaesthesia for neurosurgical procedures].

Paediatric neurosurgical procedures request special considerations for the anaesthetic management. Due to patients age and diagnostic findings certain therapeutic procedures are performed under anaesthetic care. Main reasons for craniotomy are hydrocephalus, intracranial tumors and craniofacial synostosis. Neurosurgical therapy of newborn children is related mostly to hereditary spinal dysraphism. In spinal surgery and specific intracranial procedures for monitoring reasons sensory and/or motor evoked potentials (SEP, MEP) are used to improve surgical outcome. Due to sensibility for anaesthetic drugs these techniques request sound knowledge of physiologic and pharmacologic interaction. Cerebrovascular malformations are today usually treated using radiologic interventional procedures. Operative access will be performed for selected cases additionally to embolization, but is associated with risk of massive bleeding. Severe traumatic craniocerebral injury leads to compromised cerebral blood flow and hypoxic ischemia. The article imparts funded knowledge of surgical as well as anaesthetic rationale and techniques in neuropaediatric therapies.