
Regional anesthesia may be used for certain operations if medically
indicated or if you prefer not to be totally asleep. With regional
anesthesia, a portion of your body will be made numb by using local
anesthesia to temporarily block the nerves that send pain signals
to your brain. You may also receive IV medications so that you are
relaxed or lightly sleeping. Types of regional anesthesia include
spinal, epidural and nerve block anesthesia.
During regional
anesthesia, your anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist will administer
oxygen and continuously monitor your vital signs just as during
monitored anesthesia care.
Spinal
anesthesia blocks the pain signals where they travel up
the spinal cord. After numbing a small area of your lower back,
local anesthesia is injected into the fluid surrounding your spinal
nerves through a very small needle. Numbness usually develops from
your lower rib cage down. Normally, you are unable to move your
legs during spinal anesthesia since the nerves controlling the muscles
are also temporally blocked. A spinal injection may also be used
for post-operative pain control.
Epidural
anesthesia also blocks pain signals traveling up the spinal
cord, but the local anesthesia is administered into the epidural
space just outside the spinal fluid. After numbing the skin, epidurals
can be placed in either the upper or lower back depending on the
desired area of numbness. In addition, very small plastic tubes
(catheters) can also be left in place for up to three days for post-operative
pain control. Local anesthesia is sometimes
mixed with other painkillers to adjust the amount of numbness.
Nerve
blocks are administered to block pain signals traveling
through a single nerve bundle when a smaller area of the body, such
as one arm or one leg, needs to be made numb. Nerve blocks may be
appropriate for use during the operation or for post-operative pain
control. After numbing the skin, a needle is placed near the
nerve bundle and local anesthesia is injected through the needle
or catheter.
A special type
of nerve block called an IV block or Bier block can be used for
certain operations to numb one arm. A second IV is placed in the
operative arm and a tourniquet (like a small blood pressure cuff)
is wrapped around the upper arm. After inflating the tourniquet,
local anesthesia is injected through the IV to numb the arm below
the tourniquet. Top
|