• Michael Shalaby, Raghav Sahni, Daniel Puebla, and Stephanie Fernandez.
• Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University, Miami, Florida; Department of Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, Florida.
• J Emerg Med. 2024 Jun 1; 66 (6): e701e703e701-e703.

BackgroundHidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a painful, chronic inflammatory skin condition. Patients experience exacerbations, leading them to present to the emergency department (ED) for incision and drainage. Direct injection of local anesthetic into these lesions is extremely painful and seldom provides adequate anesthesia. A modified method of the PECS II block can provide anesthesia to the skin of the axilla, making management of HS much less painful for the patient. We performed a bilateral modified PECS II block on a patient requiring incision and drainage of HS lesions in both axillae. She subsequently required no local anesthetic for the procedure.DiscussionThe second injection of the traditional PECS II block involves the deposition of anesthetic in the fascial plane between the pectoralis minor muscle and the serratus anterior muscles. This injection targets the lateral branch of the intercostal nerves, which provide sensory innervation to the axilla.ConclusionsA modified technique of the PECS II block, in which only the second injection is performed, is a potentially effective method for anesthetizing the axilla of patients with HS prior to incision and drainage.Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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