"For those interested in making outpatient surgery as affordable and
feasible as possible, the role for peripheral nerve catheters is a signifi-
cant one," says Christopher Canlas, MD, an assistant professor of clin-
ical anesthesiology in the division of ambulatory anesthesiology at
Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. "They play an
important role in reducing hospital days and increasing patient com-
fort."
There are a wide variety of block and pump features to consider.
Here are the factors you should weigh to choose the best options for
your facility.
1. The pump manufacturer
But one of first things to consider isn't the pump itself. It's the pump
manufacturer, says Brandon Winchester, MD, an anesthesiologist at
the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in Gulf
Breeze, Fla.
"Be sure to consider how stable the company is and how much con-
fidence you'll have implementing a program and knowing that the
pump is still going to be around in 6 months or 6 years," says Dr.
Winchester, the co-founder of the educational regional anesthesia
website, blockjocks.com.
"At another institution, we got burned after about a year-long trial of
5 different pumps," he recalls. "We'd in-serviced the whole hospital
and trained about a thousand nurses and 50 anesthesiologists. Then,
several weeks later, the company whose pump we'd chosen
announced they were no longer in the pump business."
F E B R U A R U Y 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 9
Some patients may get better relief with a lower basal rate
with a higher bolus rate that has lockout capabilities.
