• A Martínez Navas.
• Departamento de Anestesiología y Reanimación, Hospital Universitario de Valme, Sevilla. amartnavas@yahoo.es
• Rev Esp Anestesiol Reanim. 2006 Apr 1;53(4):237-48.

AbstractRecent years have brought renewed interest in peripheral nerve blocks as new drugs and materials have become available and as the advantages of such blocks over other anesthetic and analgesic techniques have been demonstrated. We conducted a literature search in PubMed, the Cochrane Library Plus (Spanish version), and Healthgate for the period January 1, 2000 through October 15, 2005 using the key words "complication and peripheral nerve block," "complication and peripheral block anaesthesia," and "complication and plexus anaesthesia." Totals of 178, 109, and 145 titles were obtained with each portal. When the search was limited to reviews, clinical trials, and randomized controlled trials, the numbers of articles from each portal became 11, 20, and 10, respectively, for the first string of key words; 0, 8 and 6, respectively, for the second string; and 10, 40 and 16 for the third. A detailed analysis of the results revealed 2 reviews and 1 clinical trial in which complications of peripheral nerve blocks figured in the main topic. Most of these publications agree that the overall incidence of complications related to these techniques is low. If practice guidelines and algorithms from experts are followed the incidence can be reduced. The aim of this review is to give an updated report of complications related to peripheral nerve blocks.

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