ABSTRACT
The use of regional and local anesthetic techniques other than neuraxial blockade to provide postoperative and postinjury analgesia has gained in popularity. The reasons are multiple and include the excellent pain relief provided by many of these techniques, in particular with mobilization, which will facilitate rehabilitation and early recovery. A “single-shot” peripheral nerve block with injection of a local anesthetic agent is common practice in anesthesia and continues to be widely used. Continuous regional blockade of the femoral nerve, the sciatic or posterior tibial nerves, or the lumbar plexus can provide excellent analgesia following surgery or injury to the lower limb. Neurological injury with transient or permanent nerve deficit is the most widely feared complication of all regional anesthetic techniques. Again, as with epidural analgesia, not all neurological deficits after surgery are caused by these techniques, as many orthopedic operations have an intrinsic risk of surgical nerve damage.
