Noninvasive monitoring in the pediatric patient

Substantial technological improvements have been made in the field of noninvasive monitoring. Additionally, our understanding of what these monitors will and will not do has changed the practice of pediatric anesthesia. In the 1990s it has become apparent that many cardiorespiratory parameters can be easily and safely monitored noninvasively. It is also apparent that no single monitor is capable of providing all the information necessary to provide safe anesthetic care. Those of us who provide anesthesia for children on a regular basis have come to appreciate these monitors not as an annoyance required for medicolegal protection but as tools that help improve the quality and safety of the anesthesia care our children receive. Use of these monitors represents the leading edge of an effort to reduce anesthesia morbidity and mortality to zero.