Anaesthetic Implications of Substance Abuse in Adolescent

Abstract

Despite ongoing preventive and rehabilative efforts at the local and international level, substance abuse by adolescents has crossed social, economic, and geographic borders and - throughout the world remains one of the major problems facing society today. The diverse clinical manifestation of drug abuse combined with physiologic changes may significantly have impact on the anaesthetic management. Moreover, it is always difficult to predict the exact anaesthetic implications in chemically dependent patients. Therefore, a complete understanding of the pathophysiology and anaesthetic implications of drug abuse in adolescent is essential to tailor a safe anaesthetic plan for these high-risk groups of patients.