Having ultrasound guidance available and the latest technologies in
anesthetic delivery systems should make it easier to establish consis-
tent techniques for regional anesthesia and help your practitioners
learn and perform effective continuous nerve blocks. You should
work with your anesthesia team to standardize a blocks package and
work with them to ensure they're administered the same way to each
patient.
For regional anesthesia to no longer be considered a novelty, it has
to be cemented as a core competency for all anesthesia practitioners.
We have decades of research proving regional's effectiveness, so
there's no reason every practitioner can't be as well-trained in placing
nerve blocks as they are in airway management.
We need to start pushing for the widespread use of regional anesthe-
sia, so more patients have access to it. Creating a deliberate strategy
of standardizing a small number of versatile, high-value nerve blocks
is what will transform regional anesthesia from a niche subspecialty
delivered by and for a few into a mainstream practice performed and
received by many.
OSM
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 4 3
Dr. Mariano (emariano@stanford.edu) is professor of anesthesiology and peri-
operative and pain medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief
of the anesthesiology and perioperative care service at VA Palo Alto Health Care
System in California.
