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Reexpansion pulmonary edema ( RPE) is an increased permeability pulmonary edema that usually occurs in the reexpanded lung after several days of lung collapse. This condition is recognized to occur more frequently in patients under the age of 40 years, but there has been no detailed analysis of reported pediatric cases of RPE to date. For this review, Pub Med literature searches were performed using the following terms: 're(-)expansion pulmonary (o)edema' AND ('child' OR 'children' OR 'infant' OR 'boy' OR 'girl' OR 'adolescent'). The 22 pediatric cases of RPE identified were included in this review. RPE was reported in almost the entire pediatric age range, and as in adult cases, the severity ranged from subclinical to lethal. No specific treatment for RPE was identified, and treatment was administered according to the clinical features of each patient. Of the 22 reported cases, 10 occurred during the perioperative period, but were not related to any specific surgical procedures or anesthetic techniques, or to the duration of lung collapse. Pediatric anesthesiologists should be aware that pediatric RPE can occur after reexpansion of any collapsed lung and that some invasive therapies can be useful in severe cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented which discusses the medical case of a two-year-old girl with bilateral developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) and suspected reexpansion pulmonary edema (RPE).

The article presents a case study of a five years old girl child with pervasive developmental disorder and who is also born small for gestational age(SGA). She was receiving growth harmone (GH) therapy and laboratory findings revealed no chromosomal anomalies, endocrine abnormalities, and none of congenital anomaly syndromes. SGA short stature is not involved in the predictive factors of difficult intubation. It mentions SGA children receiving GH therapy, might have difficult airway.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article by Alan R. Tait on the study of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders who underwent anesthesia.