Recently added articles from Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine:

The Effect of Opioid Dose and Treatment Duration on the Perception of a Painful Standardized Clinical Stimulus

May 01, 2008; Cohen, Steven P; Christo, Paul J; Wang, Shuxing; Chen, Lucy; Stojanovic, Milan P; Shields, Cynthia H; Brummett, Chad; Mao, Jianren ... Background and Objectives: The concept of opioid-induced hyperalgesia has recently gained prominence as a contributing factor for opioid tolerance and long-term treatment failure. But whereas the preclinical data for this phenomenon are strong, the mixed clinical data derive primarily from ...

The 2004 John J. Bonica Lecturer-Daniel B. Carr, M.D.

May 01, 2008; Rowlingson, John ... The John J. Bonica Award is one of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine's (ASRA's) oldest honors, having been part of the annual meeting program for nearly 30 years. The individual chosen after nominations are received by the Bonica Lecture Committee is distinguished by ...

Contralateral Neuropathic Pain Following a Surgical Model of Unilateral Nerve Injury in Rats

May 01, 2008; Arguis, Maria Jose; Perez, Jordi; Martínez, Gloria; Ubre, Marta; Gomar, Carmen ... Background and Objectives: Damage to peripheral nerves provokes chronic neuropathic pain that lasts beyond the duration of the nerve injury. The presence of pain signs have been reported in areas other than those attributed to the injured nerve, i.e., in contralateral regions. We ...

Ultrasound Guidance Improves the Success of Sciatic Nerve Block at the Popliteal Fossa

May 01, 2008; Perlas, Anahi; Brull, Richard; Chan, Vincent W S; McCartney, Colin J L; Nuica, Alina; Abbas, Sherif ... Background and Objectives: Real time ultrasound guidance is a recent development in the area of peripheral nerve blockade. There are limited data from prospective randomized trials comparing its efficacy to that of traditional nerve localization techniques. In the present study, we tested the ...

When Bad Evidence Happens to Good Treatments

May 01, 2008; Carr, Daniel B ... This article has as its starting point the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRAPM) 2004 Bonica Lecture, "Pain Treatments: Elegant Theories, Inelegant Universe." That talk summarized over a decade of work I had been privileged to undertake with U.S. federal agencies ...

Shivering and Neuraxial Anesthesia

May 01, 2008; Crowley, Larry J; Buggy, Donal J ... Shivering, which usually occurs as a thermoregulatory response to cold, may also occur following general or neuraxial anesthesia. Some of the causative factors of this type of shivering may be common to both, but some are particular to neuraxial anesthesia. Although shivering may have beneficial ...

Refer to Current Results

May 01, 2008; Pandia, Mihir Prakash; Dash, Hari Har; Bithal, Parmod Kumar; Chouhan, Rajendra Singh; Jain, Virendra ... To the Edltor: This is to apprise readers of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine that the results of our current study, published in this issue, entitled "Does egress of cerebrospinal fluid during percutaneous retrogasserian glycerol rhizotomy influence long term pain relief?"1 differ ...

A Case of Liver Trauma With a Blunt Regional Anesthesia Needle While Performing Transversus Abdominis Plane Block

May 01, 2008; Farooq, Muhammad; Carey, Michael ... To the Editor: Transversus abdominis plane block is increasingly used in abdominal surgery for pain relief.1 The neural afferents to the anterior abdominal wall are blocked as they pass through the neurofascial plane between the internal oblique and the transversus abdominis muscles.2 ...

A Case Report of Reappearance of Spinal Anesthesia

May 01, 2008; DeLeon, Alexander M; Benzon, Honorio T; Eisenman, Theodore S; Doty, Robert A Jr; Newell, Benjamin; McLaughlin, Kathleen ... Objective: We present a case of reappearance of spinal anesthesia despite the use of plain (isobaric) lidocaine and without an associated cough or Valsalva maneuver. Case Report: A 66-year-old man had spinal anesthesia for knee arthroscopy. Two hours after the induction of spinal ...

Ultrasonographic Guidance Improves the Success Rate of Interscalene Brachial Plexus Blockade

May 01, 2008; Kapral, Stephan; Greher, Manfred; Huber, Gudrun; Willschke, Harald; Kettner, Stephan; Kdolsky, Richard; Marhofer, Peter ... Background and Objectives: The use of ultrasonography in regional anesthetic blocks has rapidly evolved over the past few years. It has been speculated that ultrasound guidance might increase success rates and reduce complications. The aim of our study is to compare the success rate and quality ...

Ultrasound-Guided Interscalene Brachial Plexus Block in a Patient With a Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt

May 01, 2008; Robards, Christopher B; Iwata, Takashige; Somasundaram, Lakshmanasamy; Xu, Daquan; Hadzic, Admir ... To the Editor: Interscalene brachial plexus block (IBPB) offers excellent postoperative analgesia and several advantages in patients having shoulder surgery.1,2 Prior to ultrasoundguided nerve blocks, a ventriculoperitoneal (V-P) shunt may have been considered a contraindication to IBPB ...

Ganglion Impar Blocks via Coccygeal Versus Sacrococcygeal Joints

May 01, 2008; Foye, Patrick M ... To the Editor: I am writing to respond to Dr. Saberski's recent letter, 'where he alleges that his 1995 publication had long preceded my 2006 publication,2 at being the first journal publication documenting a technique for ganglion impar block via a transcoccygeal approach (via the ...

Ultrasound and Regional Anesthesia Technique: Are There Really Ultrasound Guidance Technical Limits in Sciatic Nerve Blocks?

May 01, 2008; Danelli, Giorgio; Ghisi, Daniela; Ortu, Andrea ... To the Editor: We read with interest the case report1 in which Saranteas et al. described the case of an elderly patient with a chronic myositis undergoing a lateral sciatic nerve block. Because they did not clearly identify the patient's sciatic nerve with ultrasound guidance, due to ...

Early Detection of Intravascular Injection During Ultrasound-Guided Supraclavicular Brachial Plexus Block

May 01, 2008; VadeBoncouer, Tim R; Weinberg, Guy L; Oswald, Sarah; Angelov, Felix ... To the Edltor: We detected an intravascular injection by ultrasound during performance of a supraclavicular brachial plexus block. A desirable view of the subclavian artery, first rib, and brachial plexus1 was obtained at a depth of approximately 4.0 cm (Fig 1A). When the needle tip was ...

Sonoanatomy of the Lumbar Spine in Patients With Previous Unintentional Dural Punctures During Labor Epidurals

May 01, 2008; Lee, Yung; Tanaka, Motoshi; Carvalho, Jose C A ... Background and Objectives: Preprocedural lumbar ultrasound is a valuable tool to assess anatomical landmarks and predict the depth of the epidural space. Variations of the ligamentum flavum sonoanatomy are occasionally observed; however, no literature is available as to their incidence or ...

The Search for the Originator of the Hanging Drop Technique/Reply to Dr. Neruda

May 01, 2008; Neruda, Boris; Aldrete, J A; Gutierrez, Vicente P; Auad, Osvaldo A; Wright, A J ... To the Editor: In their excellent article, Aldrete et al. have attributed the discovery of the hanging drop method to Alberto Gutierrez in 1933.1 This technique of identifying the moment of penetrating the ligamentum flavum while advancing a needle, besides other methods, highly ...

Ultrasound-Guided Anterior Sciatic Nerve Block Using a Longitudinal Approach: "Expanding the View"

May 01, 2008; Tsui, Ban C H; Özelsel, Timur J-P ... To the Editor: Ultrasound-guided anterior sciatic nerve block has been described using a medially positioned curved array probe to scan the nerve transversely at the anterior proximal thigh (Fig I).1 The ultrasound image of sciatic nerve in cross section is typically seen as an ...

Axillary (Circumflex) Nerve Block Used in Association With Suprascapular Nerve Block for the Control of Pain Following Total Shoulder Joint Replacement

May 01, 2008; Price, Darcy J ... To the Editor: A 36-year-old female (36 kg) with severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis presented for right total shoulder joint replacement. She also had spina biflda with an associated ventriculo-peritoneal (VP) shunt coursing along the right side of the neck. She had severe ...

ASRA Continuing Education Calendar

May 01, 2008; Anonymous ... For information contact: ASRA, 520 N. Northwest Highway, Park Ridge, IL 60068, U.S.A. telephone 847/825-7246, fax 847/825-5658 E-mail g.hoormann@asahq.org http://www.asra.com 2008 May 1-4, 2008 ASRA 33rd Annual Regional Anesthesia Meeting ...

The Effects of An Epidural Infusion of Ropivacaine Versus Saline on Sensory Block After Spinal Anesthesia

May 01, 2008; Guryay, Dogan; Karaege, Gunes Terzi; Katircioglu, Kaan; Ozkalkanli, Murat Yasar; Ozgurbuz, Ugur; Savaci, Serdar ... Background and Objectives: Several investigators have described the effect of bolus injections on sensory block during combined spinal epidural anesthesia. This study investigates the effects of the immediate epidural infusion of 0.2% ropivacaine versus 0.9% saline on spinal ...