Ultrasound-Guided Continuous Peripheral Nerve Blocks

Abstract

Continuous peripheral nerve block (CPNB) catheters, also known as “perineural” catheters, extend the potential duration of anesthesia and analgesia provided by peripheral nerve block techniques. In the ambulatory setting, the use of CPNB has been shown to increase the quality of pain control experienced by patients at home and to reduce the incidence of side effects produced by conventional opioid analgesics [1-3]. For hospitalized patients, CPNB techniques have similarly demonstrated postoperative analgesia efficacy following major surgery [4-7], facilitating early rehabilitation [4, 8], and shortening the time to achieve hospital discharge criteria in arthroplasty patients [6, 7, 9]. In select patients, joint replacement with only overnight hospitalization and outpatient management of perineural infusions is feasible [10-12] and offers potential economic benefits [13].