At some point soon it’ll be time to get back into the new stuff for 2018. But how about a quick recap of the hits of 2017?

OK let’s quickly note that most reviews of 2017 happen closer to 2017. But here we are and sometimes it’s worth a moment to look back at the things that people seemed to be the most interested in across 2017. Mostly they are new things but there are a couple of old posts that just keep on clocking up the views (probably because they touch on things that remain a challenge for people).

So in the spirit of ‘let me just take a little more of a breath in before charging into 2018 while still looking a little bit busy’, here are the top 10 things from 2017.

10. Bumpy Practicalities – Anaesthesia for Inguinal Hernia Repairs

This post where people shared practical information on how they do a “simple” case proved popular. This is just as well because plans are in place to keep doing these sorts of posts. Even better, there are some really useful comments that follow from super clever people.

9. Arterial Lines Redux

Well not really redux because it’s the same post as before, but it keeps being popular. This is one in our “tips and tricks” series with a focus on little practical things that are part of the job. Worth noting that it was written with a deliberate aim to focus on clinical insertion rather than predominantly looking at ultrasound. This is partly because we’re looking to make sure posts have some applications everywhere, but with evidence that ultrasound enhances first past success, we’d better get back to this soon.

8. Lots of Fresh Air – THRIVE in Kids

Quite nice to see a topical topic hitting the top 10. A crew led by Susan Humphreys in Brisbane has been doing exceptional work in this area and we’re likely to see the applications broaden, so I guess we should expect this to come up again. And again. And again.

7. Direct Looks, Video Screens and Bad Numbers All Round

There was some trepidation going into a look at a key paper comparing direct laryngoscopy and Glidescope videolaryngoscopy in difficult paediatric intubations. Not really surprising it came in at number 7. Maybe people like being reminded that when kids are tricky they’re really very tricky. Or maybe they liked the reminder that thinking only DL vs VL is probably a bit limiting.

6. New Things on Old Techniques

Continuing a bit of a theme, this post which looked at the evidence supporting modifications to the classic version of RSI some of us [*cough] grew up with proved pretty popular.

5. Nose Snorkels Are Easy

This little part of clinical practice comes up again and again with trainees which is why we collected a range of tips and tricks here. Nasotracheal intubation tips and tricks proved to be popular which must be pretty exciting for the nose really. Poor, neglected nose.

4. New Things that Are Worth Knowing About Airways

Paediatric anaesthetists are quite good at obsessing about little details, which makes the success of this post revisiting the old story about the shape of the paediatric airway not that surprising. Small details sort of matter.

3. The Talking One

This post was maybe a slight diversion from what some might call “core” paediatric anaesthesia, but I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t great knowing that people were checking it out. It’s pretty rare for podcasts to go up, so this one on the parent’s side of a tough conversation, a talk from the Don’t Forget the Bubbles conference, well and truly counts as the most popular podcast that came out. There’s also a video version of this talk out there if you prefer the slightly more raw version. While you’re there you could spend some time looking at the many, many talks that are pretty ace from the conference.

2. It’s The Simple Things

There’s a mix of items in this top 10 but it keeps coming back to practical things. In spot number 2 is this post looking at supraglottic airways with a bit of recent literature and a bit of practical stuff. It was the top post written in 2017, which can only mean….

1. Little Pricks Come Out On Top

This post just keeps racking them up. A collection of tips and tricks for putting in cannulas in kids. People just don’t seem to get enough of thinking about putting sharp things in kids.

 

So that’s the top 10 for 2017 (with a couple of guest visitors from 2016 elbowing in). What’s next? Less procrastination with posts about last year and more actual stuff. Probably. I’ll get back to you.

 

Notes:

That image is from unsplash.com where things are available for sharing. That image was put up there by Frank Okay.