Hadzic's Regional Anesthesia > Part V. Ultrasound-Guided Regional Anesthesia > Chapter 51. Ultrasound-Assisted Nerve Blocks in Adults Anahi Perlas, MD, Vincent Chan, MD

Rationale

"In recent years interest has been growing in the practice of regional anesthesia and, in particular, in peripheral nerve blocks for surgical anesthesia and postoperative analgesia. Peripheral nerve blocks have been found to be superior to general anesthesia¹ because they provide effective analgesia with few side effects² and can hasten patient recovery.³ Unfortunately, the practice of regional anesthesia does not enjoy widespread endorsement because of inconsistent success, varying from one anesthesiologist to another. Current methods of nerve localization (eg, paresthesia and nerve stimulation) are essentially "blind" procedures, since they both rely on indirect evidence of needle-to-nerve contact.^4,5 Seeking nerves by trial and error and random needle movement can cause complications. Although uncommon, complications such as intravascular local anesthetic injection resulting in systemic toxicity, inadvertent spinal cord injury following interscalene block, pneumothorax following supraclavicular block, and nerve injury have all been reported.^6,7..."