Making surgery less scary for kids

Paediatric surgery can be traumatic for children – and their parents. To guide families through the experience, Dr. Zeev Kain, chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care, is creating a unique Internet site to help parents ease children’s anxiety (and their own), properly manage postsurgical pain and, ultimately, facilitate healing.

The Web-based Tailored Intervention Preparation for Surgery (WebTIPS) site will address one of the most pressing needs in paediatric surgical care. About 60 percent of the 5 million children who undergo surgery in the U.S. each year develop extreme anxiety beforehand and suffer from unnecessary pain afterward.