The main remit of the European Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology (ESPA) Pain Committee is to improve the quality of pain management in children. The ESPA Pain Management Ladder is a clinical practice advisory based upon expert consensus to help to ensure a basic standard of perioperative pain management for all children. Further steps are suggested to improve pain management once a basic standard has been achieved. The guidance is grouped by the type of surgical procedure and layered to suggest basic, intermediate, and advanced pain management methods. The committee members are aware that there are marked differences in financial and personal resources in different institutions and countries and also considerable variations in the availability of analgesic drugs across Europe. We recommend that the guidance should be used as a framework to guide best practice.

Acute diarrhea (AD) is the most frequent gastroenterological disorder, and the main cause of dehydration in childhood. It is manifested by a sudden occurrence of three or more watery or loose stools per day lasting for seven to 10 days, 14 days at most. It mainly occurs in children until five years of age and particularly in neonates in the second half-year and children until the age of three years. Its primary causes are gastrointestinal infections, viral and bacterial, and more rarely alimentary intoxications and other factors. As dehydration and negative nutritive balance are the main complications of AD, it is clear that the compensation of lost body fluids and adequate diet form the basis of the child's treatment. Other therapeutic measures, except antipyretics in high febrility, antiparasitic drugs for intestinal lambliasis, anti-amebiasis and probiotics are rarely necessary. This primarily regards uncritical use of antibiotics and intestinal antiseptics in the therapy of bacterial diarrhea.The use of antiemetics, antidiarrhetics and spasmolytics is unnecessary and potentially risky, so that it is not recommended for children with AD.

The growing number of medical procedures performed in children that require cooperation of patients, lack of movement, anxiolysis or/and analgesia triggers the increased need for procedural sedation. This document presents the consensus statement of the European Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology about the principles connected with the safe management of procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) by anaesthesiologists for elective procedures in children. It does not aim to provide a legal statement on how and by whom PSA should be performed. The document highlights that any staff taking part in sedation of children must be appropriately trained with the required competencies and must be able to demonstrate regularly that they have maintained their knowledge, skills and clinical experience. The main goal of creating this document was to reflect the opinions of the community of the paediatric anaesthesiologists in Europe regarding how PSA for paediatric patients should be organized to make it safe. K E Y W O R D Sanalgesia, children, diagnostic elective procedure, procedural sedation, safety 584 | ZIELINSKA Et AL.