Regional Anesthesia: Overview

Regional anesthesia involves the use of a variety of techniques to block nerves with local anesthetics. If the type of surgery is amenable to regional anesthesia, the patient would be able to stay “awake” during their surgery and airway manipulation can be avoided. Some regional anesthetic techniques can also be used for post-operative pain control. This chapter will focus on central neuraxial blockade.

Type of Regional Anesthesia

Examples

Central neuraxial blockade

Epidural, spinal, combined spinal-epidural (CSE)

Peripheral nerve blockade

Upper extremity: interscalene, supraclavicular, intraclavicular, axillary

Lower extremity: lumbar plexus, femoral nerve, sciateic nerve, popliteal nerve, ankle block


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