Anesthesia for pediatric ophthalmologic surgery.

This review presents updated recommendations, based on existing clinical research, for anesthetic management of strabismus surgery in children. In children, unlike adults, eye surgery nearly always requires general anesthesia, even for brief procedures. Recommendations for preoperative anxiolysis, fasting guidelines, and management of upper respiratory infections are discussed. Airway considerations and the oculocardiac reflex are highlighted. The prevention of postoperative complications, including those related to opioid prescription therapy, is also addressed. Finally, given the 2016 warning from the Food and Drug Administration about anesthesia neurotoxicity in children, we discuss recent studies on anesthetic neurotoxicity in children undergoing general anesthesia.