Hadzic's Regional Anesthesia > Part III. Clinical Practice of Regional Anesthesia > Section Four. Blocks of the Head & Neck > Chapter 18. Nerve Blocks for the Head & Neck James P. Rathmell, MD, Geoffrey J. Pollack, MD

Nerve Blocks for the Head & Neck: Introduction

"Regional anesthetic techniques have a well established role in head and neck surgery. Successful anesthesia and analgesia for a number of procedures can be accomplished with the proper application of these techniques. For example, regional blocks can be utilized during procedures such as endoscopic sinus surgery, facial plastic surgery, thyroidectomy, and parathyroidectomy surgery. Various ear nose and throat procedures are increasingly being performed in an office-based setting. These are often done using topical anesthesia of the airway or regional blockade. Because of the close proximity of many nerve and vascular structures in this region, practitioners should be familiar with possible complications of these techniques and means to prevent and treat them. This chapter will review the anatomy relevant to regional blocks of the head and neck and will highlight examples for use of each technique in current practice. Additional discussion on numerous regional anesthesia techniques and their application can be also found in Chapter 19 (Airway Blocks) and in Chapters 20 (Oral and Maxillofacial Regional Anesthesia) and 55 (Regional and Local Anesthesia in Pediatric General Dentistry). To avoid redundancy, this chapter will deal only with the anatomic and block techniques not covered in the aforementioned chapters...."