Comparison of Three Methods of Regional Anesthesia of Peripheral Nerves and Plexuses

Aim: There were acquitted 1105 nerve blocks on 762 patients by means of three methods of peripheral nerves and plexuses identification to compare the safety and efficiency of the methods of regional anesthesia. Methods: Depending on the technique of carrying out the peripheral nerve blocks, patients were divided into 3 groups. 1st group: the identi-fication of the correct placement of the injection needle was done by eliciting paresthesia (572 blocks were performed on 395 patients); 2nd group: an electrical nerve stimulator was used to locate the nerve (164 blocks on 110 patients); 3rd group: the location of the nerve was identified using ultrasonic visual guidance (369 blocks on 257 patients). Re-sults and Conclusion: In 1st group 8 (1.4%) accidental intravascular injections of local anesthetic, 1 case of Horner syndrome (0.17%), 1 case of phrenical nerve were registered. In 17 cases there were performed other methods of anes-thesia by reason of inefficiency of the block. In 2nd group 1 case (0.61%) of intravascular injection was noticed. The block was ineffective in single case. There was no complication received in the 3rd group. All the blocks were effective