RT Book, Section A1 Perlas, Anahi A1 Chan, Vincent A2 Hadzic, Admir SR Print(0) ID 3504620 T1 Chapter 51. Ultrasound-Assisted Nerve Blocks in Adults T2 NYSORA Textbook of Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Management YR 2007 FD 2007 PB The McGraw-Hill Companies PP New York, NY SN 9780071449069 LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=3504620 RD 2024/03/28 AB In recent years interest has been growing in the practice of regional anesthesia and, in particular, in peripheral nerve blocks for surgical anesthesia and postoperative analgesia. Peripheral nerve blocks have been found to be superior to general anesthesia1 because they provide effective analgesia with few side effects2 and can hasten patient recovery.3 Unfortunately, the practice of regional anesthesia does not enjoy widespread endorsement because of inconsistent success, varying from one anesthesiologist to another. Current methods of nerve localization (eg, paresthesia and nerve stimulation) are essentially “blind” procedures, since they both rely on indirect evidence of needle-to-nerve contact.4,5 Seeking nerves by trial and error and random needle movement can cause complications. Although uncommon, complications such as intravascular local anesthetic injection resulting in systemic toxicity, inadvertent spinal cord injury following interscalene block, pneumothorax following supraclavicular block, and nerve injury have all been reported.6,7