Articles: nerve-block.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2003
Case ReportsContinuous paravertebral catheter and outpatient infusion for breast surgery.
Paravertebral somatic nerve block (PVB) provides improved analgesia and decreased side effects compared with general anesthesia for breast surgery. The analgesia is limited with single injection PVB to the duration of the local anesthetic. ⋯ We describe the successful use of continuous paravertebral anesthesia in two patients undergoing major breast surgery. A novel needle system for paravertebral catheter insertion is also presented.
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Apart from conventional epidural analgesia (EA), the combined spinal-epidural (CSE) modality is fast becoming a popular technique for treating labour pain. In this study, we investigated the differences in the patient profile and outcome between CSE and EA for labour pain in KK Women's and Children's Hospital. ⋯ CSE is a safe and good alternative to EA as a technique of neuraxial block for labour analgesia.
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Anesthesia and analgesia · Sep 2003
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialContinuous infraclavicular perineural infusion with clonidine and ropivacaine compared with ropivacaine alone: a randomized, double-blinded, controlled study.
Although clonidine has been shown to increase the duration of local anesthetic action and prolong postoperative analgesia when included in single-injection nerve blocks, a controlled investigation of the efficacy of this practice to improve analgesia for continuous perineural local anesthetic infusion has not been reported. In this study, ambulatory patients (n = 34) undergoing moderately painful upper extremity orthopedic surgery received an infraclavicular brachial plexus block (mepivacaine 1.5%, epinephrine 2.5 micro g/mL, and bicarbonate 0.1 mEq/mL) and a perineural catheter before surgery. After surgery, patients were discharged home with a portable infusion pump delivering either ropivacaine 0.2% or ropivacaine 0.2% plus clonidine 1 micro g/mL via the catheter for 3 days (basal, 8 mL/h; patient-controlled bolus, 2 mL every 20 min). ⋯ Adding clonidine to ropivacaine resulted in a statistically significant decrease in the number of self-administered 2-mL bolus doses on postoperative Days 0 and 1 (P < 0.02), but this decreased actual local anesthetic consumption by an average of only 2-7 mL/d (P < 0.02). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups for any of the other variables investigated, including sleep quality or oral analgesic requirements. We conclude that adding 1 micro g/mL of clonidine to a ropivacaine infraclavicular perineural infusion does not provide clinically relevant improvements in analgesia, sleep quality, or oral analgesic requirements for ambulatory patients having moderately painful upper extremity surgery.