Quick dispo with bedside nerve blocks

(This post was first published on blog.5minsono.com on July 23, 2016)

Have you ever had a busy emergency department? Have you ever had a patient with a fracture that you needed to sedate and you wish you didn’t have to? Well, wish no further and do a nerve block. This week we’re going to talk about a case where bedside forearm nerve blocks were used to quickly disposition a patient home. Enjoy!

  1. Great Vids.
    Just curious:
    You said “no iv was needed”.
    Did you just inject the local anesthetic?
    No iv access?
    What about toxicity or allergic reaction?
    I know that the possibility of injecting the LA into a blood vessel is nearly 0% with ultrasound and allergic reaction to amide local anesthetics is extreme rare but wouldn’t it be much safer to have an iv?

    Greetings from Germany!

    1. Hey Thomas,
      Thanks for your message. When performing nerve blocks, IV access and monitoring is what has been described and you should do whatever is standard of care in your institution. For these procedures, I always make sure I always have 100% visualization of the needle tip and observe tissue spread with each push of the syringe. The likelihood of causing LAST or other adverse side effect is very small, but still present.

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