Children's Perioperative Lab (ChiP Lab)

Children's Perioperative Lab (ChiP Lab)

This page is a research page. For clinical information, please view our anaesthesia service page on the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network website.

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The Children's Perioperative Lab (ChiP Lab) is the research arm for the Department of Anaesthesia based at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. We work in several areas, including brain blood flow monitoring during and after surgery, real-time big data applications in paediatric care, reducing anaesthesia’s carbon footprint, improving paediatric airway management, investigating malignant hyperthermia, and using virtual reality in perioperative care.

We also support the training of medical students, registrars and fellows in research activities and assist other departments in multidisciplinary research activities. 

Objectives

It is our research objective to increase the basic safety of the anaesthetic process, ensuring improved care for children. We achieve this through our work in neurodevelopment, to better understand the biological anaesthesia processes as well as our work on monitoring and improving oxygenation during anaesthesia. 

We have collaborative projects with many other national and international research groups and aim to support the growing community of paediatric anaesthesia and perioperative medicine researchers worldwide. 

Impact

  • Our collaboration in the T-REX Trial revealed that low-dose sevoflurane/dexmedetomidine/remifentanil is a clinically appropriate anaesthetic for children.
  • The HAMSTER Trial, an Australia-wide collaborative study, confirmed that both nasal high-flow and standard oxygen are effective options for maintaining oxygenation in children undergoing upper airway surgery, giving anaesthetists greater flexibility.
  • Some anaesthetic gases have greenhouse gas effects thousands of times greater than CO2, so we have introduced measures to reduce our carbon footprint through our work.

Collaborators

A/Prof Justin Skowno

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A/Prof Justin Skowno

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Biography
Group Leader, Paediatric Anaesthetist and Conjoint Associate Professor, USYD. Justin's research interests include non-invasive optical monitoring of cerebral and vascular physiology, real-time big data applications in paediatric care, and advancing sustainability in anaesthesia.
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USYD profile
Dr Jonathan de Lima

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Dr Jonathan de Lima

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Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Sydney. Jonathan's research explores pain developmental biology. His interests are in acute pain management, paediatric cardiac anaesthesia and nitric oxide physiology in congenital heart disease.
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Dr Andrew Weatherall

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Dr Andrew Weatherall

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Co-Head of the Department of Anaesthesia, Clinical Lecturer. Research interests include paediatric airway management, prehospital applications of non-invasive monitoring, virtual and augmented reality in perioperative and periprocedural care, and applications of 3D printing.
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Natarsha Vukalovich

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Natarsha Vukalovich

Biography
Research Associate, ChiP Lab. Natarsha’s research interests include neurocognitive outcomes following anaesthesia, sustainability initiatives aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of anaesthetic gases, paediatric airway management, and preoperative anxiety interventions.
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Lakshmi Aravamudhan 

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Lakshmi Aravamudhan 

Biography
Research Associate, ChiP Lab. Lakshmi’s research interests include cerebral blood flow monitoring, real-time data integration in paediatric care, and using biomarkers and neuropsychological tests to evaluate neurocognitive injury and recovery after surgery for children.
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More team members

  • Ms Lydia Watson - Research Assistant
  • Dr Margaret Perry - Malignant Hyperthermia Group
  • Dr Gail Wong - Clinical Lead, Malignant Hyperthermia Group