ABSTRACT
Regional anaesthesia involves injecting local anaesthetic around a nerve to provide analgesia or anaesthesia to the area that that nerve supplies. Ultrasound allows visualisation of the target, and as success rates are improving, regional anaesthesia is increasing in popularity. Sometimes the combination of a general anaesthetic with a regional technique is the best option. Each patient is individual and has different needs depending on the patient and his or her surgery. The Royal College of Anaesthetists website provides patient information leaflets that outline the risk of nerve damage from spinal, epidural and regional anaesthesia. All patients who have a regional anaesthetic should have the same minimum monitoring as those about to have a general anaesthetic. All patients should have intravenous access established prior to commencement of any regional technique. Local anaesthetic toxicity has been notoriously hard to treat and in the case of cardiac arrest the outcomes were poor.
