Regional Anesthesia

One of the principle goals of the Anesthesi­ologist is to provide patients with excellent perioperative pain control utilizing procedure-specific multimodal pain management techniques. Although the judicious use of systemic analgesics is of paramount impor­tance, the proper use of peripheral nerve blocks are invaluable tools in our armamentarium for the treatment of acute perioperative pain. Application of ultrasound guidance for the performance of peripheral nerve blocks and peripheral nerve stimulation allows the prac­titioner to efficiently perform the procedure while optimizing safety and efficacy.

The utilization of regional anesthesia techniques has been shown to provide acute perioperative pain control that is superior to opioids alone.  Application of regional anesthesia techniques can therefore mitigate the risks of adverse opioid related side effects, particularly respiratory depression.  An acute pain service has the potential to decrease health care costs by virtue of shorter hospital stays, a decreased incidence of major adverse cardiac and pulmonary events as well as decreasing the likelihood of acute pain developing into chronic pain

Regional Anesthesia Team