Not so rare Internet sites
K. Medlock, Mark L. Thomas · Anaesthesia · 2002
We read with interest the recent letter (Varvinasi et al. Anaesthesia 2001; 56: 809) describing the anaesthetic management of a case of Soto's Syndrome and suggesting the need for an anaesthetic web site of rare disorders. Hamiltons' answer to this problem (Hamilton. Anaesthesia 2001; 56: 1216) was to purchase a textbook of genetic, metabolic and dysmorphic syndromes. There are, in fact, a host of useful sites available on the World Wide Web. They may not give direct anaesthetic advice but have comprehensive details of the features of many syndromes. Whilst a more specialised anaesthetic web site would be of value, most potential problems can be inferred from the information provided on these pages. Three sites are of particular interest: One of the most useful is OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim/) This is an easy to use catalogue of over 13 000 human genetic disorders containing textual information, references, pictures and links to other related resources. The entry for Soto's Syndrome comprises six pages with 42 references cited. A second site is the Pediatric Database (PEDBASE http://www.icondata.com/health/pedbase/pedlynx.htm), which has descriptions of over 550 childhood diseases. The entire database is available for download as shareware and can be easily installed on a hand-held/palm-top computer. This site also has a detailed summary of Soto's Syndrome including definition, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical features, investigations, management and Internet links. A third site is the National Organisation for Rare Disorders (http://www.rarediseases.org/). This site has an alphabetical database of rare syndromes and was developed in 1983 to provide up to date information to both physicians and the general public. Finally, we direct interested readers to an article published last year, which has a comprehensive review of websites related to paediatric anaesthesia [1].