Hadzic's Regional Anesthesia > Part III. Clinical Practice of Regional Anesthesia > Section Five. Upper Extremity Nerve Blocks > Chapter 29. Wrist Block Steven Glickel, MD, Paul Hobeika, MD, Douglas Unis, MD, Jerry D. Vloka, MD

Wrist Block: Introduction

"The wrist block is a technique for blocking branches of the ulnar, medial, and radial nerves at the level of the wrist. The wrist block is a basic peripheral nerve block technique that involves anesthesia of the median, ulnar, and radial nerves, as well as the dorsal sensory branch of the ulnar nerve. The wrist block is simple to perform, essentially devoid of systemic complications, and highly effective for a variety of procedures on the hand and fingers. As such, skill in performing a wrist block should be in the armamentarium of every anesthesiologist. Wrist blocks can be used in the outpatient setting and office setting along with the standard operating room setting, resulting in safe, effective, and cost-effective anesthesia that is well accepted by both surgeons and patients.^1–8 Wrist blocks are also useful in the emergency setting to provide anesthesia for repair of hand injuries in the emergency room because there is adequate anesthesia of the hand without motor blockade of the extrinsic hand muscles.⁹..."