Perioperative fluid therapy in pediatrics.

Perioperative fluid therapy should be considered as a medical prescription of which both the volume and the composition should be adapted to the patient status, the type of operation and the expected events in the postoperative period. Perioperative fluid therapy is aimed at providing maintenance fluid requirements, at correcting fluid deficit and at providing the volume of fluid needed to maintain adequate tissues perfusion. Recent literature is challenging the old concepts for maintenance fluid requirements described by Holliday and Segar in 1957(1), and the recommendations regarding both volume and content of perioperative solutions have been the subject of recent controversies. Fluid therapy in the neonatal period will not be considered in the present lecture.