NYSORA - The New York School of Regional Anesthesia: The Use of Regional Anesthesia in Ambulatory Anesthesia Practice

The Use of Regional Anesthesia in Ambulatory Anesthesia Practice
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Vijay Patel on 19/03/2009 16:30:00

While peripheral nerve blocks offer many potential advantages in ambulatory
patients, and many anesthesiologists feel that their use will increase in the
future, a vast majority of anesthesiologists do not perform lower extremity
peripheral nerve blocks.

Based on: "Hadzic A,Vloka JD, Kuroda MM, Koorn R, Birnbach DJ. The use of
peripheral nerve blocks in anesthesia practice. A national survey. Reg Anesth
Pain Med 1998:23:241-246".
There is increasing evidence that regional anesthesia and peripheral nerve
blocks may result in a favorable recovery profile, reduced cost and excellent
patient satisfaction. While a recent study indicated that regional anesthesia
accounts for 20% of clinical anesthesiology practice in the US, the extent to
which regional anesthesia and specifically, peripheral nerve blocks are used in
out-patients is not known.
Thus, in order to ascertain the use of peripheral nerve blocks in ambulatory
anesthesia practice, a questionnaire on the use of neuraxial anesthesia and
peripheral nerve blocks was sent to 805 randomly selected anesthesiologists
practicing in the US. The final data analysis included only respondents who
reported participating in the care of ambulatory patients. Four hundred-nine
valid responses were received (response rate of 50.8%). Of these, 382 (94.6%)
reported participa-ting in the care of ambulatory patients, and nearly half of
respondents (45.2%) reported that out-patient anesthesia comprised more than 50%
of their practice. The most commonly used regional anesthesia techniques were IV
regional anesthesia, brachial plexus block and neuraxial anesthesia.
Legend: Horizontal bars represent percentage of anesthesiologists who use the
technique in their ambulatory anesthesia practice.
* Hadzic A, Vloka JD, Koorn R, Sanborn K, Shih H, Birnbach DJ. The use of
regional anesthesia in ambulatory anesthesia practice. Results of a national
survey. Anesthesiology 1997; 3A:A22.
The least frequently used were lower extremity peripheral nerve blocks. While
peripheral nerve blocks were more frequently utilized in teaching institutions
(p