Advantages
The use of peripheral nerve blockade offers several advantages when compared to general anesthesia or local anesthesia:
- The patient can remain awake and breathing on his/her own, thus protecting himself/herself from aspiration of stomach contents into the lungs. By avoiding general anesthesia, patients with adverse reactions to general anesthetics can be successfully treated. Similarly, patients who experience nuisance side effects from general anesthesia such as nausea and vomiting or excessive sleepiness can minimize these symptoms.
- There is no need to perform a tracheal intubation, with its attendant complications.
- The sympathetic nerves to the operative limb are anesthetized, leading to vasodilation. This improves blood flow to the affected limb and makes microvascular surgical procedures technically easier.
- The limb can remain numb for several hours after surgery, providing excellent pain relief.
- Deep and superficial structures of the limb are similarly anesthetized, allowing extensive surgical exploration and correction to occur. This is in contrast to locally injected local anesthetics, which tend only to numb superficial structures in the immediate vicinity of the injection.
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