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O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
R E G I O N A L A N E S T H E S I A
When they're used successfully in lower extremity surgeries, peripheral
nerve blocks deliver patients into PACU awake, seemingly pain-free and
so comfortable that they may try to ambulate too soon. This has long
caused concern that block patients are at increased risk for fall injuries.
Researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell
Medical College and Stony Brook University in New York and
Stanford University School of Medicine in California scoured a
national database of patient outcomes to seek the possibility of a cor-
relation between anesthesia technique and post-op falls.
Their study, published in the March 2014 issue of the journal
Anesthesiology (
tinyurl.com/m2gy7jn
), reviewed 191,570 knee arthroplas-
ty cases performed in an inpatient environment between 2006 and 2010.
The sample's fall rate was 1.6%. Peripheral nerve blocks were used in
12.1% of the cases, whose techniques included general anesthesia
(76.2%), combined general and neuraxial anesthesia (12.9%), and neu-
raxial alone (10.9%).
The researchers found that while fall patients tended to be older
(average age around 70 years) and tended to harbor more comorbidi-
ties, a statistical analysis showed no significant association between
the use of peripheral nerve blocks and post-op falls.
— David Bernard
BLOCKS AND FALLS
Are Nerve Blocks A Risk Factor for Post-Op Falls?
1. Shingles
Referrals from primary care physicians and surgeons to the anes-
thesia providers or other clinicians who run pain management
services are perhaps the main route through which patients might
receive non-surgical peripheral nerve blocks at your facility.
