• James S Bowness, David Burckett-St Laurent, Nadia Hernandez, Pearse A Keane, Clara Lobo, Steve Margetts, Eleni Moka, Amit Pawa, Meg Rosenblatt, Nick Sleep, Alasdair Taylor, Glenn Woodworth, Asta Vasalauskaite, J Alison Noble, and Helen Higham.
• Oxford Simulation, Teaching and Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Department of Anaesthesia, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Newport, UK. Electronic address: james.bowness@jesus.ox.ac.uk.
• Br J Anaesth. 2023 Feb 1; 130 (2): 217225217-225.

BackgroundUltrasonound is used to identify anatomical structures during regional anaesthesia and to guide needle insertion and injection of local anaesthetic. ScanNav Anatomy Peripheral Nerve Block (Intelligent Ultrasound, Cardiff, UK) is an artificial intelligence-based device that produces a colour overlay on real-time B-mode ultrasound to highlight anatomical structures of interest. We evaluated the accuracy of the artificial-intelligence colour overlay and its perceived influence on risk of adverse events or block failure.MethodsUltrasound-guided regional anaesthesia experts acquired 720 videos from 40 volunteers (across nine anatomical regions) without using the device. The artificial-intelligence colour overlay was subsequently applied. Three more experts independently reviewed each video (with the original unmodified video) to assess accuracy of the colour overlay in relation to key anatomical structures (true positive/negative and false positive/negative) and the potential for highlighting to modify perceived risk of adverse events (needle trauma to nerves, arteries, pleura, and peritoneum) or block failure.ResultsThe artificial-intelligence models identified the structure of interest in 93.5% of cases (1519/1624), with a false-negative rate of 3.0% (48/1624) and a false-positive rate of 3.5% (57/1624). Highlighting was judged to reduce the risk of unwanted needle trauma to nerves, arteries, pleura, and peritoneum in 62.9-86.4% of cases (302/480 to 345/400), and to increase the risk in 0.0-1.7% (0/160 to 8/480). Risk of block failure was reported to be reduced in 81.3% of scans (585/720) and to be increased in 1.8% (13/720).ConclusionsArtificial intelligence-based devices can potentially aid image acquisition and interpretation in ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia. Further studies are necessary to demonstrate their effectiveness in supporting training and clinical practice.Clinical Trial RegistrationNCT04906018.Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

17 keywords...

hide…