Ultrasound guidance in regional anesthesia: state of the art review through challenging clinical scenarios

Ultrasound guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) for peripheral nerve blockade is becoming increasingly popular. The advantage of ultrasound technology is that it affords the anesthesiologist the real time ability to visualize neural structures, needle advancement, and local anesthetic spread. Recent da...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Local and regional anesthesia 2009-01, Vol.2 (default), p.1-14
Main Authors: Sites, Brian D, Antonakakis, John G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anesthesia
Review
Ultrasonic imaging
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Ultrasound guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) for peripheral nerve blockade is becoming increasingly popular. The advantage of ultrasound technology is that it affords the anesthesiologist the real time ability to visualize neural structures, needle advancement, and local anesthetic spread. Recent data suggest that UGRA generates improved success rates and reductions in performance times in comparison to traditional approaches. Further, the use of ultrasound technology in peripheral nerve blocks has provided insight into needle-nerve interactions, revealing distinct limitations of nerve stimulator techniques. Given that UGRA requires a unique set of skills, formal standards and guidelines are currently being developed by leadership societies in order to foster education and training. This review article, in a case vignette format, highlights important techniques, concepts, and limitations regarding the use of ultrasound to facilitate regional anesthesia. Clinically relevant aspects of ultrasound physics are also discussed.
ISSN:1178-7112
1178-7112
DOI:10.2147/LRA.S3444