ANESTHESIA ALERT
with obese or vasculopathic patients, who often had to endure the agony of multiple sticks. Now they can usually be easily placed with a single quick needle insertion.
Less pain after surgery
With some procedures, like shoulder and hip surgery, pain can be excruciating after surgery. Here again, ultrasound can make a huge difference. When used to insert blocks for pain relief, and especially when combined with nerve stimulation, it lets us visualize the nerves and surround them with a doughnut of pain-blocking local anesthetic. Doing so doesn't only provide pain relief for 24 hours or more, but by using local anesthetic techniques more often, we can reduce the need for narcotics, which means less nausea and vomiting, and typically
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DON'T BE A STICK IN THE MUD
Do You Resist or Embrace Technology?
If you're not yet using ultrasound to its full potential, consider the story of French physician René Laennec. In 1816, he saw some boys scratch a pin on one end of a stick and place the other end of the stick to their ears to hear the amplified sound. Inspired by what he'd observed, he went on to invent the stethoscope.
Now you might assume that physicians worldwide immediately embraced the new invention. After all, to that point they'd been in the habit of listening to lungs and hearts by placing silk handkerchiefs on heir patients' chests (both male and female) and pressing their ears against them. But resistance always seems to tag along with constructive change. As late as 1885 — 69 years later — a professor of medicine wrote, "He that hath ears to hear, let him use his ears and not a stethoscope."
— Susan Curling, MD, MBA
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