Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2009
Practice GuidelineThe American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine and the European Society Of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Therapy Joint Committee recommendations for education and training in ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia.
Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) is a growing area of both clinical and research interest. The following document contains the work produced by a joint committee from ASRA and the European Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Therapy. ⋯ The Joint Committee recommends that the decision to grant UGRA privileges be based at the individual institution level. Each institution that conducts UGRA is encouraged to support a productive quality improvement process.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2009
Ultrasound-guided posterior approach for the placement of a continuous interscalene catheter.
The posterior approach to performing a continuous brachial plexus block at the level of the nerve roots has been described using traditional superficial landmarks. We describe an ultrasound-guided approach for the placement of a continuous interscalene brachial plexus catheter at the level of the nerve roots using a posterior approach. In addition, we provide the clinical characteristics of the first 16 catheters placed at our institution utilizing this approach. ⋯ Results suggest the use of ultrasound for placing a continuous interscalene nerve catheter via the posterior approach is a viable technique that offers an alternative to the more conventional non-image-guided superficial landmark techniques.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Jan 2009
Anatomic variations of the obturator nerve in the inguinal region: implications in conventional and ultrasound regional anesthesia techniques.
This study was conducted to provide a thorough description of the variability in the obturator nerve branching pattern in the inguinal region. ⋯ High anatomic variability in the obturator nerve's divisions and subdivisions does exist, and explains the difficulty frequently encountered in the application of regional anesthetic techniques.