الفهرس 
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Abstract
Anaesthetic management of neonatal surgical emergencies requires an understanding of the unique physiology of the preterm and full term infant, as well as a precise knowledge of the pathophysiology of disease states likely to affect the neonate. As the neonate is in a state, of transition from an intrauterine to an extrauterine enviroment, knowledge of the development of transition mechanisms is also important (Stephen et a!., 1981).
The newborn infant has a number of physiological features which differ from the adults and which are of very real relevance to the anaesthetic concerned with the management of children in this age group.
The infant of birth has to possess all the machinery for changing from one environment to a totally different one, some are the result of such a small creature requiring special protective mechanisms to meat a hostile world and yet others are merely the result of adult functions being as yet underdeveloped. Thus the neonate should not be regarded merely as an incomplete adult, but rather as different organism (Rees, 1980).
Important advances have been made in the preparation of the infant for surgery, in the increased use of the ventilator therapy, in the better understanding of fluid, electrolyte and metabolic disturbances and in the use of improved equipment and therapeutic agents, all of which have contributed to lowering the mortality and morbidity of neonatal surgery (Vivorj and Bush, 1977).