• Young Uk Park, Jae Ho Cho, Doo Hyung Lee, Wan Sun Choi, Han Dong Lee, and Keun Soo Kim.
• 1 Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Ajou University Hospital, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Korea.
• Foot Ankle Int. 2018 Jun 1; 39 (6): 731-735.

BackgroundSingle or combined multiple-site peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs) are becoming popular for patients undergoing surgery on their feet or ankles. These procedures are known to be generally safe in surgical settings compared with other forms of anesthesia, such as spinal block. The purposes of this study were to assess the incidence of complications after the administration of multiple PNBs for foot and ankle surgery and to compare the rates of complications between patients who received a single PNB and those who received multiple blocks.MethodsCharts were reviewed retrospectively to assess peri- and postoperative complications possibly related to the PNBs. The records of 827 patients who had received sciatic nerve blocks, femoral nerve blocks adductor canal blocks, or combinations of these for foot and/or ankle surgery were analyzed for complications. The collected data consisted of age, sex, body mass index, presence of diabetes mellitus, smoking history, tourniquet time, and complications both immediately postoperatively and 1 year later.ResultsOf these 827 patients, 92 (11.1%) developed neurologic symptoms after surgery; 22 (2.7%) of these likely resulted from the nerve blocks, and 7 (0.8%) of these were unresolved after the patients' last follow-up visits. There were no differences in complication rates between combined blocks and single sciatic nerve blocks.ConclusionThere were more complications, both transient and long term, after anesthetic PNBs than previous literature has reported. Combined multiple-site blocks did not increase the rate of neurologic complications.Level Of EvidenceLevel III, retrospective comparative study.

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