Ultrasound-guided (needle-in-plane) perineural catheter insertion: the effect of catheter-insertion distance on postoperative analgesia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

When using ultrasound guidance to place a perineural catheter for a continuous peripheral nerve block, keeping the needle in plane and nerve in short axis results in a perpendicular needle-to-nerve orientation. Many have opined that when placing a perineural catheter via the needle, the acute angle may result in the catheter bypassing the target nerve when advanced beyond the needle tip. Theoretically, greater catheter tip-to-nerve distances result in less local anesthetic-to-nerve contact during the subsequent perineural infusion, leading to inferior analgesia. Although a potential solution may appear obvious-advancing the catheter tip only to the tip of the needle, leaving the catheter tip at the target nerve-this technique has not been prospectively evaluated. We ther

SUBMITTER: Ilfeld BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3085850 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature