Regional anesthesia

Regional anaesthesia, literally anesthesia affecting only a part of the body (not the brain). This term encompasses several techniques including epidural anaesthesiaand spinal anaesthesiaand conduction techniques where local anesthetics are injected around nervesleading to and from specific areas such as arms and legs.

Regional anaesthesia involves the introduction of drugs, e.g. local anaesthetics, with the intention of blocking the nerve supply to a specific part of the body, such as a limb, so the patient cannot feel pain during or after a surgical operation, for pain relief during onset of labour or during labour or for chronic pain. Unlike general anaesthesia, the patient remains awake for the duration (or sedated), resulting in reduced side-effectsand enabling the surgeon to converse with the patient during the procedure if required.

Examples of common regional anesthesia procedures are brachial plexusblock for shoulder and arm procedures, Femoral Nerveand Sciatic Nerveblock for leg procedures.

Regional anaesthesia is now more common than general anaesthesia for caesarian sectionprocedures. An example of popular use is the application of epidural or combined spinal epidurals as a form of regional anaesthesia favoured during pregnancy near term or during labour.

See also

• Nerve block

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional+anesthesia Wikipedia article Regional anesthesia.