Regional anesthesia and pain medicine
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Aug 2019
Accuracy of fluoroscopic-guided genicular nerve blockade: a need for revisiting anatomical landmarks.
Genicular nerve blockade (GNB) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) have recently emerged as treatment options for patients with chronic knee pain. However, an increasing number of anatomical studies and systematic reviews concluded that the anatomical basis for needle placement was unclear, incomplete and somewhat inaccurate. This study was designed to assess the accuracy of updated anatomical landmarks for fluoroscopy-guided blockade of the consistent genicular nerves in a cadaveric model. ⋯ This study provides physicians with precise anatomical landmarks for the five consistent GN for fluoroscopic-guided GNB. Our revised technique, which targets more nerves with increased accuracy, could potentially lead to improved therapeutic benefits on chronic knee pain.
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Reg Anesth Pain Med · Aug 2019
Usefulness of high-resolution ultrasound for small nerve blocks: visualization of intercostobrachial and medial brachial cutaneous nerves in the axillary area.
High-resolution ultrasound (HRU) allows one to identify small nerves, but in the clinical setting, intercostobrachial nerve (ICBN) and medial brachial cutaneous nerve (MBCN) are not identified with conventional portable ultrasound (CPU) devices. The aim of this study is to identify both nerves and describe their relation with specific anatomical structures which could be easily identified with the ultrasound devices available in the clinical setting. ⋯ HRU is a useful tool to identify ICBN and MBCN nerves, and to describe structures which can be easily identified with CPU use in the clinical setting.